Just Under the Upper Hand
by subwaytonowhere
Summary: *RPF* To Curt, leaving Texas means leaving behind everything. So when he's forced to move with his parents to Littleton, Colorado, he's less than thrilled. As he gets used to his new life and makes new friends, he finds himself falling for one of his new friends. A RIKURT high school AU.
1. Extended Author's Note

I know you're probably all going to kill me for this, but this is something you all need to read and understand before you actually start reading the fic. I would just include this at the top of the first chapter, but this is a little too long for that.

First of all, this is a Rikurt High School AU. Emphasis on _High School AU_

I am aware of the fact that Curt was homeschooled, and I am aware of the fact that Riker attended a performing arts school in Colorado. But the high school AU stems from this. In this fic, they both attend a public high school.

Second, I have manipulated the timeline for the use of my story. I know that the Lynches moved to California in 2007, but in my story, they don't move until June 2009, forming R5 in late 2009.

Third, I myself have not attended a public school since I was nine years old. I have a limited knowledge of what public high school is like, and I apologize for any factual inaccuracy that results because of this.

Fourth, I have never been to Littleton, Colorado, nor have I been to Arlington, Texas. I apologize for any factual inaccuracy that results because of this.

Fifth, I have written quite a bit of fanfiction before. However, I have never really written a multi-chapter fanfiction like this. This will be a learning experience for me, so please be patient.

Sixth, any original characters are copyright of me.

Seventh, I believe that I have bored you enough. Thank you for reading, and I hope that you enjoy this story.


	2. Chapter 1

**So. Welcome to the first Chapter of my new Rikurt fic. I know I gave you a pretty lengthy Author's Note, but I felt the need to add a disclaimer. I don't own anything you recognize. On the contrary, I do own anything you don't recognize. Haha.**

**Also, this Chapter is kind of crappy, and I apologize. I had to set up the story somehow. Next chapter, we'll get into the actual plot, and it'll be a lot better than this one. **

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Curt had never really been one for change.

And now, here he was, eight hundred miles away from everything he'd ever known. This was only his fifth day living in Littleton, Colorado, and he already felt out of place.

"Curt! Come down and eat some breakfast!" his mom called from downstairs.

Just the thought of eating made Curt's stomach growl in protest. He was seriously not hungry. But still, he made his way down the stairs.

"There he is!" Curt's dad said when Curt appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

"It's your first day of school in Colorado. Are you excited?" his mom asked.

It was more than just his first day of school in Colorado. Today was also his first day at a regular school. Back in Texas, he'd been homeschooled by his mom. He'd do schoolwork in the morning, then rush over to the theater to help out with whatever he could until he had to go to one of his acting classes. Then, he'd be in rehearsal for whatever show he was in at the time, or he'd be auditioning for one. It was very regimented and exhausting, but it was also really rewarding.

Then, last winter, Curt's dad lost his job.

His mom picked up extra work, and his dad worked odd jobs whenever he could. Fortunately, at the beginning of summer, his dad got a job offer. The only drawback was that it was in Denver, Colorado. The company that had employed his dad recommended that they live in Littleton, and that his dad take the RTD train into Denver. That way, the cost of living would be cheaper.

Curt did his best to make the most of his last summer in Texas. Last Wednesday, they left Arlington for Littleton. They drove about halfway to Littleton, and then stopped in Guymon, Oklahoma to spend the night in a hotel. In the morning, they drove the rest of the way to Littleton. They'd spent the weekend moving in, and they'd made a surprising amount of progress.

"My stomach really hurts. I think that I should stay home today," Curt said.

"Honey, I know you're nervous about going to school, but you'll do just fine. I have faith in you. Now, come eat something. An empty stomach will do you no good," his mom said.

Curt reluctantly walked into the kitchen. He grabbed two slices of bread from the loaf on the counter and popped them in the toaster. When they popped up a few minutes later, he slathered some butter on them and put them on a napkin.

"Just toast?" his mom asked. Curt didn't usually eat so little for breakfast.

"I don't think my stomach can handle anything else right now," Curt said. Curt ate his toast, and then threw the napkin away in the trash can.

"You should probably think about getting ready," his mom said. "The bus comes in forty-five minutes."

Right. The school bus. He'd almost forgotten about that.

Curt walked back up the stairs and into his new room. So far, he'd only gotten around to setting up his desk and bed, and he'd only gotten around to putting about a quarter of his clothes away. There was still a tall stack of boxes that contained items that he still needed to go through.

He walked over to his closet and opened one of the drawers inside. He pulled out a pair of jeans and a fresh pair of underwear, and grabbed a plain blue shirt. He took his time changing. Afterwards, he tossed his pajamas in the hamper and went to go brush his teeth.

Curt was finally starting to get used to the setup of the new house, but there was still a few moments of hesitation when he went to open a door, wondering if he was opening the right one. The bathroom door was wide open, and so he walked in. He brushed his teeth, combed his hair, and then walked back to his room, which didn't feel like his room at all. He knew that he should probably be getting ready to leave the house soon. The bus stop was a fifteen minute walk away.

Curt grabbed his backpack, which was sitting next to his door, and slung it over his shoulder. He made his way back downstairs and over to the front door.

"You should wear a jacket. It's cold and rainy outside," Mrs. Mega said. Curt ran back upstairs and grabbed the first jacket he saw; a fleece jacket that was hanging in his closet. He put it on and ran back downstairs.

"I would say good luck, but I know that you don't need it," Curt's mom said to him when he got back downstairs. She kissed his cheek.

"See you after school," Curt said.

"Bye," his mom said.

Curt opened the door and walked outside. The cold wind cut straight through his fleece jacket like a knife. It wasn't really raining, more like lightly sprinkling, but it was obvious that it had been raining pretty hard earlier. The street was still slick with a thin layer of water.

Curt shivered as he walked to the bus stop. He definitely wasn't in Texas anymore. Back in Arlington, it was still very warm out. In the winter months, it would cool down, but on average it never got quite cold enough to snow.

Finally, he made it to the bus stop. Curt knew that he'd made it to the right place because a bunch of kids that looked to be his age were standing there. Curt walked over and got in the back of the line behind them.

"Are you new here?" a girl asked him. She had a thin, wiry body, and she was wearing a thin pullover over a tank top with cut-offs. Curt wondered how she could stand it. It was absolutely freezing out here. Or maybe he wasn't used to the cold yet.

"Uh, yeah," Curt said.

"Cool," she said. "What's your name?"

"Curt," he said.

"My name is Marissa," she said.

"Nice to meet you," he said.

Curt appreciated that Marissa was trying to be nice to him, but at the same time, he didn't want to talk to her anymore. They'd known each other for less than two minutes, but Curt already found her annoying. Aside from her nasally, obnoxious voice, she just seemed to be really fake.

Her face was painted with make-up and her hair was dyed blonde. It wasn't that Curt hated people who dyed their hair; it was just that it was really obvious that Marissa had done it herself.

"Rydel!" Marissa said, turning her attention to a girl running towards them. Curt sighed in relief, knowing he wouldn't have to talk to Marissa anymore.

"Hi, sorry I'm late!" the girl said. "_Someone_ overslept this morning."

The two girls turned around and faced a tall boy who was making his way over to them.

"Riker, you bad boy!" Marissa yelled at him.

The boy, apparently named Riker, didn't say anything. He just quietly walked to the line and stood behind Curt.

"There's the bus!" a kid near the front of the line yelled.

The school bus pulled up slowly, and then screeched to a halt in front of them. The doors opened, and the kids got on the bus one-by-one. Then, Curt remembered that he had some paperwork he had to give the bus driver. He took his backpack off and opened it up. His mom had put it in a labeled envelope, so it was easy to find.

When Curt looked up, he realized that everyone had gotten on the bus ahead of him. He ran up and got on before the bus driver could close the door on him.

"Well, I don't think I've seen you before," the bus driver said when Curt had climbed up into the bus.

The bus driver was an older man, probably in his sixties or seventies. He seemed like a kind man.

"I'm new," he said, handing the bus driver the envelope. The bus driver pulled the forms out of the envelope and looked them over.

"Welcome aboard, Curtis!" he said.

"Thanks," Curt said.

Curt walked down the aisle, surveying the seats. Every seat was occupied by at least one person, so all he needed to do was find someone willing to share. As he walked, a lot of kids put up their legs or backpacks on the seat defensively. Just as Curt was beginning to panic, one boy set his backpack down on the ground and gestured for Curt to sit next to him. Curt recognized him as the boy who'd been standing behind him in line, but his name had already slipped Curt's mind.

Curt wondered if maybe he should introduce himself. At least that way he'd know someone else, and he might have someone to sit with at lunch. But when Curt turned to the boy, he was listening to his iPod, already worlds away.

The bus ride lasted another forty minutes. They went to three other neighborhoods, picking a few more kids up, and then the bus driver drove over to the school. As the bus was slowing to a stop outside the school, Curt's stomach lurched uncomfortably.

Everyone stood up and clamored into a line. Curt managed to push himself into the line and followed the flow of the traffic to the door and down the steps of the bus. Above the door were big letters that read "Littleton High School".

This was it. No turning back now.

Curt walked up the sidewalk and in through the doors. He knew that he was supposed to go to the school office to pick up his schedule, but he didn't know where the office was. He looked around, but he didn't see it. Finally, he relented and walked up to a kid that was standing alone.

"Excuse me," he said. "But how do you get to the office?"

"New here?" the boy said. Curt nodded. "I figured. Just walk down that hallway, swing a left, and it's impossible to miss."

"Thanks," Curt said.

"No problem," the boy said.

Curt followed his directions, walking down the hallway and turning left. Just like the kid had said, the office was right there. Curt walked inside the office and up to the secretary's desk.

"Hello, there," the woman behind the desk said.

"Hi, I'm new here and I was told to come here?" Curt said.

"Ah, yes," she said. "What's your name?"

"Curt Mega," he said.

"_Curtis_ Mega?" she said. Curt nodded.

"Alright," she said, grabbing a manila file folder. In here you'll find your class schedule, a campus map, and some other goodies. Good luck on your first day," she said. Curt nodded.

"Thanks," he said.

Before walking out of the office, Curt scanned his schedule. He had Language Arts first period in room 102. Class started in fifteen minutes, and in that time Curt had to find his locker, figure out how to open it, put his stuff inside, and then find his first class.

Curt walked out of the office. A boy was leaning against the wall adjacent to the office. When Curt looked at him, the boy smiled and motioned him over. Curt tentatively walked across the hall to him.

"By any chance, is your name Curtis?" he asked.

"Curt," he said, correcting him. "And yeah, that's me."

"Well, nice to meet you, Curt. My name is Finn O'Brien. I'm your student mentor," the boy said.

"Student mentor?" Curt asked.

"Yeah. Littleton High pairs each new student up with another student as their mentor, to help them learn the ropes," Finn said. "We're required to meet daily for the first month."

"Then what?" Curt said.

"Well, I've seen one of two things happen," Finn said. "The first is that the mentor and student become good friends, and they still hang out after their required one-month sentence. The second is that the new student makes friends of their own, and the mentor and student part ways after the required month."

"Oh, I see," Curt said.

"Yeah, it's pretty straightforward," Finn said.

Finn was a fairly tall guy. His hair was rusty, copper-color. Curt could tell that his hair had been bright red at some point. Either his hair was naturally turning brown, or he'd dyed it brown at one point and his natural color was coming back in. He seemed to be a nice guy.

"And you're from Detroit?" Finn asked.

"Arlington, Texas," Curt said.

"Wow, that's not really close, is it?" Finn asked. Curt shook his head.

"Not really, no," Curt said, smiling.

"Well, now you're about twenty minutes south of Denver. Congratulations," Finn said. Curt laughed.

"Thanks," Curt said.

"So, what are your hobbies?" Finn asked. "I'm not anybody cool, so don't lie to me."

"Well, I write," Curt said. He did like to write poetry, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to disclose that to someone who he'd just met and may or may not judge him for it.

"That's cool," Finn said.

"I'm also really into theater. In my old city I used to do things at the theater a lot, whether it was helping out with sets or the technical stuff, acting classes, or being in shows," Curt said. "I'm also a movie buff. I love watching movies."

"I don't think that we're going to have any problem getting along," Finn said. "I'm into the theater stuff too."

"Really?" Curt said.

"Yeah," Finn said. "And my friends are kind of into that stuff too, so if you eat lunch with us, you'll be with other theater geeks."

Curt smiled.

"So, where's your locker?" Finn asked.

"It's locker number 735," Curt said, looking at his paper.

"I know where that is," Finn said.

Curt followed Finn down the hallways. Finally, Finn stopped in front of a locker.

"This is it," Finn said.

"Thanks," Curt said. In the folder, there was a paper that was explained how to open a locker. Curt followed the instructions carefully. His locker combination was 0-2-40. He opened it on the first try. First, he took off his jacket and hung it on one of the hooks inside. Then, he opened up his backpack and took out a folder, a notebook, and his pencil case. Lastly, he put his backpack inside and closed his locker.

"Where's your first class?" Finn asked.

Curt jumped a little at the sound of his voice. Curt thought that Finn had walked away.

"Um, in room 102," Curt said.

"That's on the way to my first class. I can walk you there if you'd like," Finn said.

"That'd be great," Curt said.

Finn walked Curt over to Room 102, which turned out not to be too far away from his locker.

"I'll meet you right here after class, okay?" Finn said.

"Alright," Curt said.

"See you later," Finn said. Finn continued on his way to whatever class he was going to.

Curt's stomach lurched again. The bell was going to ring soon. He took one last reassuring breath, and then walked inside the classroom.

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**Well, that's the first chapter. If you want to leave a review, it would be appreciated. But I'm not one to force you to do anything :)**


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hi, guys! I'm back with Chapter 2! I see that this story already has a few faves and follows-thank you very much, guys! **

**I don't own Curt Mega or Riker Lynch or anyone else you might recognize. However, I do own all of the other characters that appear here (Finn, Marissa, Sophie, Adam, the teachers, etc.)**

**I hope that you enjoy this chapter!**

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"As you may have noticed, we have a new student in here. Everyone please extend a warm welcome to Curtis Mega," Mr. Schaefer said. "Why don't you stand up and introduce yourself?"

By now, Curt was getting used to it: the way kids looked at him like a foreigner, trying to figure out a place to sit, and being introduced to the class as _Curtis _rather than Curt. But Mr. Schaefer had thrown him in for a loop. His Language Arts and Biology teachers had only mentioned him in passing and then continued on with their normal plans. Neither of them had asked him to stand up and introduce himself.

Curt stood up, but didn't move from behind his desk.

"As Mr. Schaefer said, my name is Curtis, but I prefer to be called Curt," he said.

"Duly noted," Mr. Schaefer said.

"Anyways, I just moved here from Arlington, Texas. My dad got a job offer up here, so I'll be here in Littleton until I graduate, at least," Curt said.

"Do you have any siblings?" Mr. Schaefer asked.

"No, I'm an only child," Curt said.

"Ah, an only child," Mr. Schaefer said. "What about your hobbies?"

"I'm a big movie buff. I love watching movies," Curt said. "In Texas, I was really active in at the theater. Not just acting in the plays, but I also helped out with all of the behind the scenes stuff, like set designing, and I also did some of the technical stuff. I swam competitively back in Texas, too."

"That's cool," Mr. Schaefer said. "The drama teacher, Mrs. Carlyle, is looking for new additions to the drama club. And we have a swim team you can try out for in the spring."

"Cool," Curt said.

"Well, thank you for sharing a little bit about yourself with us, Curt-not-Curtis. Now, let's get into our lesson. Today we're going to learn about solving quadratic functions," Mr. Schaefer said. The class groaned.

Curt was already fairly good at doing Quadratics. He took notes anyways. About halfway through the class period, Mr. Schaefer wrapped up his lecture and turned them loose on the night's homework.

"Curt-not-Curtis," Mr. Schaefer said. "Here's your math textbook."

Curt took the textbook from Mr. Schaefer. This was another aspect of being new that Curt was getting used to. If the class had a required textbook, then one of the people from supply would run it down to him. There wasn't a required language arts textbook, but he'd gotten one in Biology. Now, he had a math book to add to the list.

"Thanks," Curt said.

Curt had a feeling that he was going to enjoy Mr. Schaefer's class. Mr. Schaefer was a very energetic and interesting guy. Curt got right to work on the homework, and finished it before class was even up.

The bell rang with a clatter, and the students fled the classroom like bats out of Hell. Curt vaguely wondered if Mr. Schaefer could read his mind, because as he thought this, Mr. Schaefer began to laugh.

"Run for your lives, children!" Mr. Schaefer said to himself.

Curt had just finished putting his pencil back in his case, and was slowly gathering up his things.

"I didn't realize that you were still here, Curt-not-Curtis," Mr. Schaefer said. "Do you not find math terrifying like the other students?"

Curt shook his head.

"Quadratics are yesterday's news to me," Curt said.

"Ah," Mr. Schaefer said. "That's good. That'll make the next couple of weeks easy for you while you adjust to Littleton High. See you tomorrow, Curt-not-Curtis."

He thought that it was kind of funny that Mr. Schaefer called him Curt-not-Curtis. He wondered how long he was going to keep it up.

"Goodbye," Curt said.

Curt walked out of the classroom. Not only had Finn been walking him to his classes, but he was always waiting for Curt when he got out.

"Hi," Finn said.

"Hey," Curt said.

"How was math class?" Finn asked.

"Pretty good. Mr. Schaefer is pretty interesting," Curt said.

"Yeah, I had him last year. I miss him," Finn said. "So, where are you off to next?"

"Civics with Mrs. Butler," Curt said.

"Me too!" Finn said. "Follow me."

The two boys weaved their way down a couple of hallways, and into room 260. A big American flag hung on the wall, along with several maps of various countries. Finn went right to his desk and sat down, but Curt just stood there.

"What are you waiting for?" Finn asked.

"Everyone else to sit down," Curt said. "I don't want to steal someone's seat."

"No one ever sits in that desk right there," Finn said, gesturing to a desk a few seats behind him.

"Thanks," Curt said.

Curt walked over to the desk that Finn had pointed out to him and sat down at it. He wondered if there was a particular reason why no one sat here, like some kind of creepy superstition or something. He'd have to ask Finn later.

Curt looked up to see a boy walking into the classroom. He instantly recognized him as the tall blond from the bus stop this morning.

"Hey," Finn said to him as he walked by.

"Hi," he said, pushing past Finn. He kept his eyes on the ground. For a brief second, he looked up and met Curt's gaze, but then cast his eyes downward again. It was only then that Curt realized that he'd been staring at him. The guy tossed his stuff onto the desk next to Curt, and then sat down.

Curt was tempted to sneak a glance over at the guy, but instead he pretended that he was looking at the board. However, Mrs. Butler hadn't written anything up on the board yet.

"Is Curtis in here yet?" Mrs. Butler said, scanning the room.

"Yeah," Curt said, standing up and walking up to the front of the classroom.

"Hi, I'm Mrs. Butler, and I'm your Civics teacher," she said.

"Hi," Curt said.

"Do you go by Curt or Curtis?" she asked.

"I usually go by Curt," Curt said.

"Alright, I'll make note of that," Mrs. Butler said. "I see you've already found a seat. Anyways, I really just wanted to introduce myself."

"Nice to meet you," Curt said.

More kids were flooding into the classroom, and Curt figured that it was time for him to take his seat. He walked back to his desk and sat down.

"Oh, hey Curt!" a female voice said. Curt groaned internally. He recognized the voice as the nasally voice of Marissa, the girl from the bus stop. Normally Curt wasn't so quick to judge people, but everything about Marissa seemed fake, and it really annoyed him. People shouldn't have to feel like they have to be someone else to get people to like them.

"Hi," Curt said.

"How's your first day going?" she asked, taking a seat next to him.

"It's going alright," Curt said.

Marissa opened her mouth to respond, but suddenly closed it. Curt was confused, but hey, how could he complain?

Mrs. Butler wasted no time in beginning the Civics lecture. Today they were beginning a new unit, making it the perfect time for Curt to join the class. They were going to be covering the different structures of Government through this next unit. Today's lecture was all about Monarchies. After the lecture, Mrs. Butler handed them out a worksheet. There were still fifteen minutes remaining in the class period, and in that time Curt managed to get the worksheet done. Not that it was surprising. It was really easy if you were paying attention.

Finally, the bell rang. It was now time for lunch. He met up with Finn, and the two walked to their lockers. Finn guided him to the cafeteria, and explained to him how to go through the lunch line. Curt felt kind of embarrassed that he had to have Finn explain it to him, but it wasn't his fault that his parents had been homeschooling him for his entire life. After Finn and Curt had gotten their food, Finn walked him over to his lunch table.

There were three people already sitting at the table. The first was a girl. She was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt and jeans. Her black hair was braided down the side, and she had a soft smile. The second was a shy-looking boy with brown hair and brown eyes. The third person at the table was the sandy-haired boy that Curt seemed to keep running into, but whose name always slipped his mind. Marissa had said it at the bus stop this morning. It was Ryan or Ryder or something like that; Curt was pretty sure.

"So, you must be Finn's protégé," the girl said.

"I guess you could say that," Curt said, smiling.

"Sit down," Finn said. Curt set his tray down on the table, and then pulled one of the beige plastic chairs out from the table. Curt sat down and slid in.

"Curt, I would like to introduce you to Sophie Woods, Adam Martella, and Riker Lynch," Finn said.

"Hi, nice to meet you," Sophie said, reaching out and shaking Curt's hand.

"Hi," Adam said.

Riker looked up at Curt, but he didn't say anything. There was a moment of awkward silence, but then Sophie filled it.

"So, you definitely got stuck with the right mentor," Sophie said.

"He hasn't shut up about it since he found out that got paired up with someone," Adam said.

Curt turned over to Finn, who was blushing.

"So, where are you from?" Sophie said.

"Texas," Curt answered.

"Oh! Where in Texas?" Sophie asked.

"Arlington," Curt said.

"I've been there before," Sophie said. "My aunt lives down there."

Curt forged a smile. Sophie seemed really nice, but he kept getting distracted by Riker staring at them.

"Ugh," Sophie said. Curt snapped his attention right back over to Sophie, worrying that he had offended her somehow.

"What?" Curt asked.

"We have a visitor," Sophie said, rolling her eyes.

Curt turned his head to see Marissa making a beeline for their table.

"Her again?" Curt said to himself quietly.

"Hi, guys!" Marissa said. Curt was praying that she didn't normally sit here.

"Go away," someone said. Curt turned his head to realize that Riker had been the one to say that. Curt had only heard him speak once before, and that was when he'd said hi to Finn in Civics class.

"Riker, why do you have to be so mean to me?" Marissa asked. "Your sister is so nice to me."

"Please go away," Adam said.

"See, Riker? At least Adam is polite when he tells me to go away," Marissa said.

"So, why the sudden interest in us, Marissa?" Sophie said.

"Well, I just thought I'd introduce myself to Littleton High's newest student," Marissa said.

"But we've already met," Curt said.

"Please leave, Marissa," Riker said.

"Fine," she said. She turned around and left with a grumble.

"She will do anything to get into a guy's pants," Adam said with a sigh.

"So, what was your old school like?" Sophie asked, changing the subject.

"I was actually homeschooled by my mom," Curt said. "This is my first time attending a regular school."

"Wow," Sophie said. "If you don't mind me asking, why are you beginning regular school now?"

"It's more convenient for us," Curt said. Truth be told, even Curt wasn't exactly sure as to why he was here, but it sounded like a good explanation.

Sophie nodded like she understood.

"Yeah, that makes sense," Sophie said.

"So, tell us about some of your theater work," Finn said.

"I don't know what to say, really," Curt said. "I mean, I did a lot over there. I did everything from building and painting sets to taking classes to the technical stuff to actually acting."

"Wow," Adam said, sounding impressed.

"You should join the drama club," Sophie said.

"Totally," Adam said, nodding. "We're a little low on numbers this year."

"So, you're in the drama club?" Curt asked Adam.

"Oh, we all are," Finn said. "Even Mr. Grumpy sitting over there." Finn gestured over to Riker.

"Is that it?" Curt asked. If Sophie, Adam, Riker, and Finn were the only ones in drama club, then Curt could see why they needed to get their numbers up.

"No, there are probably about fifteen of us total," Adam said. "That's just a rough estimate, though. We had about three times as many people as that last year."

"Wow," Curt said.

"You're too late for the fall play, but you could do the winter musical or the spring play," Sophie said.

"How do I join?" Curt asked.

"Just show up at our next meeting," Finn said.

"We meet on Fridays after school," Sophie said.

"Cool," Curt said.

"So you'll come?" Sophie asked.

"Yeah," Curt said. One of Curt's biggest fears about moving to Colorado was not being able to be involved with theater. If there wasn't a community theater he could help out at, then drama club was probably the next best thing.

"Excellent!" Finn said, clapping his hands together.

They continued the conversation, talking about all of the things that Curt used to do in Texas. He told them about doing competitive swimming, and his friends, and being homeschooled. Finn's friends listened attentively, asking him questions. Riker didn't ask him anything, but Curt could tell that he was paying attention. The remainder of the lunch hour flew by, and before Curt knew it, he was heading to his fifth hour.

Fifth hour, Curt had Spanish. It turned out that Adam was in his Spanish class. No one was sitting in the desk next to Adam, so Curt sat next to him. The class had been covering some simple verb conjugations, and so their teacher handed out a review worksheet for them to do. Neither Adam nor Curt were very good at Spanish, so the worksheet was extremely difficult to do.

Littleton High had always had a block schedule, but this year they had abolished it, instead replacing it with a seven-period schedule. After sixth and seventh hour, the students were dismissed. Curt said goodbye to Finn, and then gathered up his stuff and slid it into his backpack. There was a slew of buses parked outside the doors. Curt managed to find his bus, and he got on it.

There were already quite a few kids there. Riker was one of them. When Riker saw Curt walking down the aisle, he moved his backpack to the floor like he'd done for Curt this morning. Curt slid in next to him and sat down.

Just like this morning, Riker put his earphones in and began to listen to his iPod before Curt had a chance to say anything to him. But to be honest, Curt wasn't sure what he'd say to Riker if he had a chance. Riker seemed to be a man of few words, and Curt liked that.

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**Well, that's it for chapter 2. I hope that you enjoyed it. Hopefully I'll be back with chapter 3 soon. Reviews are 100% optional, but would be very much appreciated! Thanks to all of you who are reading this...I hope you stick around!**


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hey guys! I finally have chapter 3! I've actually had this written in my notebook since Wednesday, but I wasn't able to finish typing it up until now.**

**I would just like to make a note that I don't own Curt or Riker or any of them. However, I DO own Finn, Sophie, Adam, etc. :)**

**Also, I don't know if this is actually how an improv exercise works, but just go with it, haha. Anyways, I hope you enjoy chapter 3 here. You all rock!**

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As each day passed, Curt became less and less nervous about going to school. At least after the first day, he knew what to expect. Over the course of his first full week in Littleton, he established a new routine. Every morning, he'd get up, and then get ready for school. He had to be out the door by 6:30. Then, he'd walk to the bus stop, and have a short-lived but unpleasant conversation with Marissa until the bus came. He'd sit next to Riker, who always got on before him, and think about trying to start a conversation with him. But Riker would have his earphones in before Curt had the chance.

Today appeared to be no different.

It was Friday morning, and Curt had just finished talking to Marissa. Their conversation had literally lasted a minute. After that, Riker and his sister had arrived, and Marissa promptly ditched him to talk to her (not that Curt minded). A few minutes later, the bus pulled up and everyone got aboard.

Like usual, Riker got on before Curt, and Curt slid into the seat and sat down next to him. Curt set his backpack down on the ground, and then looked up at Riker. Curt was surprised to see that Riker hadn't put his earphones in yet. Usually, that was the first thing he did.

"Good morning," Curt said.

"Morning," Riker said.

"Um. How are you?" Curt said.

"I'm alright," Riker said. "It's way too early."

Curt couldn't believe that he was actually having a conversation with Riker. He had begun to think that he was never going to get Riker to talk to him.

"I know," Curt said.

Back in Texas, Curt would usually get up between 8:30 and 9:00 AM, even on the weekends. But here, he had to be up no later than 5:45 AM if he wanted to make it to the bus stop on time.

"Did you forget your iPod today or something?" Curt asked Riker. Riker suddenly looked hurt.

"I'm sorry," Riker said, reaching for his coat pocket.

"No!" Curt said. "I mean, it's just that you never talk to me."

Riker's hand paused in midair, and for a second, Curt thought that he was going to put it down and continue talking to him. But then, it reached inside his pocket. Curt felt awful. Riker had finally begun to talk to him, and he had blown it.

"Have you ever heard McFly?" Riker asked as he turned on his iPod.

"Mc Who?" Curt asked.

"You're in for a treat, then," Riker said. Riker handed one of the earphones to Curt, and Curt slid it in his ear. Riker played some of his favorite songs from McFly, occasionally sharing a trivia fact or two. But mostly, he let Curt listen. Before Curt knew it, they could see Littleton High School in the distance.

"They're pretty much my favorite band," Riker said.

"I can see why. They're pretty good," Curt said.

"Try amazing," Riker said.

Then, Riker smiled. Curt had never seen Riker smile before. Riker had one of those bright, contagious smiles that had the power to instantly put you in a good mood. Curt smiled back at him just as the bus screeched to a halt in front of Littleton High.

Twenty-five minutes later, Curt was walking into his language arts class. Even though the school day was only beginning, Curt knew that it was going to be a good one.

Who knew that one person's smile could be so potent?

"You seem awfully happy today, Curt-not-Curtis," Mr. Schaefer said when Curt walked into math class.

"Is it that obvious?" Curt asked.

"You have a twinkle in your eye and a spring in your step. I'd say it's very obvious," Mr. Schaefer said.

After math, Curt found himself back in Civics class. He was the first one to arrive, and took his seat at his desk. It occurred to him that he'd forgotten to ask Finn why no one sat here. He made a mental note to remember to ask Finn about it later, but Curt knew that he'd forget. A couple of minutes later, Riker came in with Finn right behind him. When Riker locked eyes with Curt, he smiled at him again.

"I have more music to play for you," Riker said. "Remind me on the way home."

Civics class always seemed long because it was the last class before lunch. It dragged on, but finally, the lunch bell rang.

Today's lunch was fettuccine alfredo.

"Finally, an entrée I can eat," Adam said. Curt shot Adam a confused look.

"He's a vegetarian," Finn explained.

"Five years now," Adam said.

"Wow," Curt said.

"Don't forget about drama club after school today," Finn said, changing the subject. It was a good thing that Finn had reminded him, because he'd almost forgotten about it. Curt was actually really excited about going to drama club. He'd been away from the theater for over a week now, which felt like a century to Curt.

They continued about their normal conversation. Even Riker jumped in on the conversation, to everyone's surprise. After Curt and Adam had finished eating, they said goodbye to the others and went to the library.

Their Spanish teacher had no interest in helping Adam understand the material, nor did she have any interest in helping Curt catch up. So, Curt had been looking up information about the stuff they were covering, and he was attempting to help Adam as best he could.

"I thought he didn't like me," Curt said while he and Adam were browsing through the Spanish materials section of the library.

"Who? Riker?" Adam said. Just as Curt nodded, Adam picked up a magazine that was in Spanish. When Adam didn't say anything, Curt realized that Adam hadn't seen him nod.

"Yeah, I'm talking about Riker," Curt said.

"He's just shy," Adam said. "He was like that too, when we first met."

Curt was glad that Riker was finally coming around to him. It was like he'd gotten the final seal of approval from Finn's friends.

"Hey, what does this even say?" Adam asked, handing Curt the magazine that he'd been looking at for the past five minutes. The cover had a picture of Zac Efron on it. It was a fairly recent magazine. Curt had no idea that he was still popular. Unfortunately, he couldn't decode what the cover said, either.

"Beats me," Curt said, handing the magazine back to Adam. Adam placed it back on the shelf. Finally, Curt found a couple of resource books, and they sat down and finished the homework that was due next period.

After fifth, sixth, and seventh hour, Finn met Curt by his locker. Together, they walked to the drama classroom.

The drama classroom was on the second floor. The desks had been pushed to the back of the classroom, and the chairs had been arranged into rows. There was a small stage in the front of the classroom. A younger, blonde-haired woman was sitting behind one of the teacher's desks, looking over some papers. None of the other students had arrived yet.

"Hi, Mrs. Carlyle," Finn said.

"Good afternoon, Mr. O'Brien," Mrs. Carlyle said, not looking up from her papers.

"I'd like to introduce you to someone," Finn said. Mrs. Carlyle snapped her head up. "This is Curt Mega."

"Hi, I'm Mrs. Carlyle, one of the drama teachers here at Littleton High" she said to Curt, standing up to walk over and shake his hand. "Will you be joining us?"

"Yeah," Curt said.

"Splendid," she said. "Well, take a seat. I'm sure the others will be joining us shortly."

She was right. Soon, a lot of kids began to flood in: Sophie, Adam, and Riker included.

"Let's call this meeting to order," Mrs. Carlyle said. "First, I'd like to draw your attention to our new member, Curt."

Mrs. Carlyle gestured to Curt, and then continued on.

"Second, it has come to my attention that there is a mandatory rehearsal today for _You Can't Take it With You_," Mrs. Carlyle said. "Those of you who are acting in that will be dismissed after I take roll."

Mrs. Carlyle ran down the list of students, and then the kids who were in _You Can't Take it With You _were dismissed to their rehearsal.

"She's not directing the fall play?" Curt asked, whispering in Finn's ear.

"We have two drama teachers," Finn said. "Mrs. Carlyle and Mr. Allan. Mr. Allan takes care of the fall and spring plays, but the winter musical is Mrs. Carlyle's time to shine."

"Since we've lost a good chunk of our members to the _You Can't Take it With You_ rehearsal, I thought that we'd do some improvisational acting today," Mrs. Carlyle said. "Who wants to captain the first group?"

"I do!" Finn said, shooting his hand up in the air.

"Very well, Mr. O'Brien," Mrs. Carlyle said. Finn stood up and ran up to the stage in front of the classroom.

"You can pick two other students to be in your group," Mrs. Carlyle said.

"Curt and Riker," Finn said without even hesitating.

Curt and Riker both got up and awkwardly walked to the front of the room.

"Alright, you guys know the drill," Mrs. Carlyle said. "Let's start with a location and a time frame."

"The movie theater," a kid said.

"Friday night," another said.

"Okay. Who is Riker playing?" Mrs. Carlyle said.

"Joe, the captain of the football team," one kid said.

"Who is Curt playing?" Mrs. Carlyle said.

"Sally, Joe's clingy girlfriend," Adam yelled out.

Mrs. Carlyle laughed.

"Alright then,"Mrs. Carlyle said. "What about Finn?"

"Darren, the third wheel," A kid said.

"Alright, I would normally ask for a scenario, but I think the person who gave Finn his character gave them a scenario too," Mrs. Carlyle said. "Are you guys ready?"

The three boys nodded.

"Action," Mrs. Carlyle said.

"Hey, baby," Riker said, slinging his arm around Curt.

"Yay, you're finally back!" Curt said.

"I was only gone four minutes," Riker said.

"I know, but I miss you when you're not around," Curt said.

Curt booped Riker's nose, and Riker chuckled.

"Aw," Riker said. "I miss you when you're not around too."

"Do you guys mind?" Finn said, interrupting them. "I'm trying to solve the celebrity word scramble."

This drew a few laughs from the crowd.

"You're just jealous of what Joe and I have," Curt said.

"No, I'm trying to solve the celebrity word scramble, and you two are distracting me," Finn said. "Oh, that one's Kat Dennings."

"I'm going to go to the bathroom before the movie starts," Riker said.

"Don't leave me," Curt said.

"I won't be gone very long," Riker said. Riker walked away from Curt and Finn.

"He is so amazing," Curt said.

"Uh-huh," Finn said in a monotonous voice.

"I mean, I just love him so much," Curt said. "I know that we've only been together for three days, but I can just tell that we're meant to be."

"Uh-huh."

The audience was in hysterics.

"Hey, I'm back," Riker said, walking back over.

"Thank goodness, I was so worried," Curt said.

"You know I'll always come back for you," Riker said.

Riker cupped Curt's cheek with his hand and stared into his eyes. Then, Riker closed his eyes and leaned in as if he was going to kiss Curt. At first, he thought nothing of it, but Riker kept on getting closer and closer. It seemed as though he was actually going to kiss Curt. So, Curt closed his and accepted it.

"Do you guys have to do that here?" Finn asked.

Riker stopped, and Curt opened his eyes. Riker was inches away from his face. Riker recoiled and stood back up straight.

"What the heck, man?" Riker said.

"I'm just saying," Finn said. "This is a movie theater, not a motel room."

"Okay, I knew that you were jealous of Sally and I, but I didn't know that you were this jealous," Riker said.

"I'm not jealous!" Finn said.

"Denial. Classic. And I thought you were my friend," Riker said. "Come on, Sally, we're leaving."

"You can't! I'm your ride," Finn said.

"Well, then, I guess we're taking the bus," Riker said. "Come on, Sally."

Curt and Riker walked to the other end of the stage.

"Scene," Finn said.

The audience clapped. The three walked off the stage and took their seats.

"I thought you guys did a really good job," Mrs. Carlyle said. "And Curt, you're a very talented actor. I think that you are going to be a great addition to the LHS drama team."

"Thank you," Curt said.

Mrs. Carlyle asked for volunteers for the next group to go up. They continued the cycle until everyone had gone. By the time that everyone had finished, it was time to go.

"So, what'd you think?" Finn asked.

"I really enjoyed it," Curt said.

"So, you'll come back next week?" Finn asked.

"Yeah," Curt said.

"Cool," Finn said. "I'm glad. So, do you have any plans for the weekend?"

"Not really," Curt said. "I'll probably get on Facebook to check in with my Texas friends and I'll probably finish unpacking."

"You have a Facebook?" Finn asked. "Can I add you?"

"Sure," Curt said. "I'll see you Monday, okay?"

"Alright," Finn said.

He walked to locker and opened it up. He put on his jacket, and grabbed his backpack. Then he walked out the nearest door and over to the bus that he was supposed to take home.

Riker was sitting by himself in one of the seats. Curt slid in next to him, and set his bag down on the ground. When Curt sat down, Riker didn't say anything to him. Curt felt a little disappointed, but brushed it off. Then, he felt someone tap his shoulder. He looked over to see Riker holding out one of his earphones to him.

"Like I said, I have a lot more to show you," Riker said. Curt grinned and placed the earphone in his ear.

"You remembered," Curt said.

"I always keep my promises," Riker said, just before starting the next song.

* * *

**That's it for Chapter 3! I hope that you enjoyed it!**

**Also, thanks to EVERYONE who has been reading, following, faving, and reviewing! Reading your reviews just makes my day! **

**Make sure you stick around-I'm kicking things up a notch in Chapter 4!**

**Love you all! Stay awesome! xoxo**


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: I'm back with Chapter 4! **

**I don't own Curt or Riker or any of the other Lynches, but I do own all of the original characters that appear here. **

**I just want to thank my friend McKenzie for helping me come up with the name for Curt and Riker's country. So, McKenzie, if you're reading this, THANK YOU!**

**As promised, I stepped things up a little in this chapter. So, I hope you guys like it! Happy reading! xoxo**

* * *

The weekend passed by quickly and rather uneventfully. Curt had spent the entire weekend helping his parents finish moving into their new house. Now that everything had been unpacked and they'd gotten rid of all of the cardboard boxes, their house was starting to feel more like a home. Even though Curt hadn't done much besides working on moving in, the weekend still passed by way too quickly.

Monday seemed like it was going to be just as uneventful too. The day wasn't going by slow, but it wasn't going by fast, either.

Curt walked into Civics, internally groaning. It wasn't that he hated Mrs. Butler, nor was it that he found the material boring. But little did he know that today Mrs. Butler was going to be thrown in for a loop.

When he walked into the classroom, the first thing he noticed is that Mrs. Butler had written names up on the board. As Curt scanned them, he realized that she'd paired everyone off with another student in the class. It looked like Finn had been paired up with Marissa. And he…oh, wow. Curt had been paired up with Riker.

"We're starting a new, long-term project," Mrs. Butler said, as if she could read Curt's mind. "I'll explain more when class begins."

Curt slowly nodded. All he could focus on was the fact that he had just been paired up with Riker for a long-term project. Was this a good thing? A bad thing? He guessed he would find out soon.

"Riker is really nice," Mrs. Butler said, as if it were the natural flow of the conversation. "That's why I paired you up with him. And if you have any problems, you can always come to me, although I highly doubt that you two will have any problems."

"Thanks," Curt said.

Then, Finn walked in the room.

"What are you looking at?" Finn asked Curt, walking up beside him. Curt gestured to the board, and Finn scanned the names.

"I'm paired up with _Marissa_?" Finn said. His voice reached a coldness that Curt had never heard before. Curt had his own reasons for not liking Marissa, but he couldn't help but wonder what Sophie, Adam, Finn, and Riker's were.

Students were beginning to flood in, and Curt took his usual seat.

After the bell rang, Mrs. Butler explained their project. They were going to be working with a partner (which she'd already taken the liberty of assigning), and they were going to use what they'd learned in class to create their own countries. Mrs. Butler passed out a rubric for the project, which was due three weeks from today. It seemed like a simple enough project.

"So, I guess we're partners," Riker said beside him.

"Yeah," Curt said, turning to face him.

"Would you want to come over to my house tomorrow so we can get started?" Riker said.

"Sure," Curt said. "I'll ask my parents tonight."

"Don't forget," Riker said.

"I won't," Curt said.

And when Curt got home that afternoon from school, he didn't forget. Before he knew it, the plans had been made. And now, here he stood.

Curt stared at the door. He was at the right house. He'd already checked five times. But for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to knock. Finally, on a whim of courage, he brought his hand up to the door and knocked.

It was a woman who opened the door.

"You must be Curt," she said before he could say anything. "I'm Riker's mom. Come on in."

She stepped to the side, and Curt walked inside the house. She closed the door behind him.

"You can take off your shoes and hang up your jacket here," she said, gesturing to a set of hooks on the wall. Curt unzipped his jacket and hung it up on one of the empty hooks. Then, he slid his feet out of shoes.

"Thanks," Curt said.

"Riker's just around the corner here. I beat him to the door," she said. Curt walked in a little further, and sure enough, his mom was right. He was standing just around the corner from the entryway.

"Hi," Riker said.

"Hey," Curt said.

"Ready to get started?" Riker asked.

"Come on, at least introduce him to the family!" Riker's mom said. "Everyone's really excited to meet him."

"Fine," Riker said. Riker led Curt out of the entryway and into the living room. "The rest of the family's in here."

Curt looked at the group in the living room, shocked by their size. Curt knew that Riker had a sister, but he didn't know that Riker had more siblings. In addition to his sister, there were three other boys sitting in the living room.

"Sitting over there on the recliner is my dad, and on the couch are my siblings. My sister's name is Rydel, and my brothers are Ross, Rocky, and Ryland," Riker said. Riker pointed to each person as he said their name.

"So, all of your guy's names begin with the letter 'R'?" Curt said.

"Yeah," Riker said. "Kind of cool, huh?"

Curt mentally ran through everybody's name: Ross, Rocky, Ryland, and Rydel. And of course, Riker, but there was no way that he could ever forget that. He knew that all of Riker's sibling's names weren't going to stick, at least not tonight. Not only did all of them begin with R, but they were all fairly uncommon names, too.

"Let's get started," Riker said. Riker led Curt down the hall and into one of the rooms. The walls of the room were painted blue, and there were not one, but two beds.

"I share this room with one of my brothers," Riker said. "You can sit down on the floor. Let me find my Civics stuff and we can get going."

"I guess we can start by taking a look at the rubric," Curt said as Riker sat down next to him. "It'd probably be best to know what we're being graded on before we go in." Curt reached inside his backpack and pulled out his folder and notebook.

"So, the assignment is to create our own country," Riker said. "We have to come up with the country's name, government, imports and exports, blah, blah, blah, let's see…and we have to write a paper explaining all of these in detail, draw a map of our country, and design a flag. We have three weeks to do it in."

"Alright, that doesn't sound too bad," Curt said.

"So, what do you want our country to be?" Riker asked.

"I don't know," Curt said. "Okay, maybe this project is going to be a little difficult after all."

"Yeah," Riker said.

"Let's think about it this way," Curt said. "In your perfect world, what would the climate be like?"

"It'd be sunny and warm all the time," Riker said. That was Curt's answer too. Ever since he'd arrived in Colorado, it'd been cold, the temperature never going above sixty degrees. And it'd rained a lot too. The weather reports said that they could even be expecting some snow soon.

Curt pulled out his notebook and wrote that down.

"Well, we've got our climate down," Curt said.

They continued by asking each other what their favorite government system was, what their preferred exports would be, and things like that. Before they knew it, they had the basic statistics for their island all mapped out. Well, almost all of the basic statistics. The only thing they were missing was a name.

Coming up with the name was proving to be the most difficult part. It wasn't that Curt and Riker were coming up with bad ideas; it was just that none of their ideas seemed to fit.

"Azroth?" Riker finally suggested.

"That's kind of cool," Curt said. "Where'd you come up with that?"

"I don't know, I just kind of made it up," Riker said. "But, I'm not sure. Maybe we should come up with something different."

"No, I like it," Curt said. "And we've been arguing over the name for a long time. We've finally found a name we agree on; let's just leave it at that."

"Okay," Riker said. "Azroth it is."

"Cool," Curt said. "Now, how would we spell that?"

"A-z-r-o-t-h," Riker said with a shrug.

"Works for me," Curt said, writing it down.

"What now?" Riker asked.

"Let's start the flag," Curt said. "Then another time we can work on the map and the paper."

"Sounds good," Riker said.

"Dinner time!" Riker's mom yelled from the kitchen.

"Change of plans," Riker said. "It looks like we're eating now."

Curt and Riker stood up, and Riker led him to the kitchen.

"Are you boys getting a lot done?" Riker's mom asked when the boys arrived at the kitchen.

"Yeah, actually," Riker said.

"That's good," his mom said. "Now, sit down. I made us tacos."

"Ooh," Riker said, sitting down at the table.

"You can sit down next to me," Riker said, gesturing at the empty chair next to him.

"But that's where I sit," one of Riker's brothers said. Curt couldn't remember what his name was, but he was the blond one.

"Ross, you're just going to have to sit somewhere else," his mom said.

Ross walked over and sat on the other side of the table. Riker's mom had just put the pan of taco meat in the center of the table. They wasted no time in grabbing tortillas and passing the pan of meat around the table. Mrs. Lynch finished putting out the taco toppings, and then sat back down.

"Oh, I forgot to get the cheese!" she said after sitting down.

"I'll get it," Riker's dad said. He stood up and walked over to the fridge.

"Curt, sweetie, would you like something to drink?" Mrs. Lynch said.

"Water's fine," Curt said with a polite smile. Curt didn't know what they had to drink here, and besides, Mrs. Lynch seemed frazzled enough. A few seconds later, she set a glass of water down next to him.

"Thanks, Mrs. Lynch," Curt said.

"You're welcome," she said. "And you can call me Stormie."

She walked over to her seat and sat down.

"So, how much do you guys have left to do on your project?" Stormie asked.

"Well, when you think about it, we actually have a lot left to do," Riker said. "We have to come up with our own country. Curt and I have all of the basic stuff figured out, but we have to make a map, a flag, and write a paper about it. We have three weeks to get it done, so there's no rush, but we wanted to get a head start."

"That's cool," Stormie said.

"After dinner, we're going to get started on the flag," Riker said.

"I don't think so, Riker," Riker's dad said. "It's getting pretty bad out there."

Even through the small window that was in the kitchen, Curt could see that it was snowing rather heavily outside.

"Ugh!" one of Riker's brothers said.

"Did it ever snow in Texas?" Rydel asked. Curt remembered that her name was Rydel because it was like Rydell High, the high school in _Grease_.

"Not that I can remember," Curt said. "Wait, how'd you know I was from Texas?"

"Are you kidding? Riker talks about you, like, all the time," one of Riker's other brothers said.

"Rocky!" Riker hissed under his breath.

"It's true, though," Rocky said. "He never shuts up about you!"

"Roc-ky," Mr. Lynch said in a warning tone. Rocky groaned, but let it go.

Curt wasn't sure how he was supposed to feel about the fact that Riker had told his family about him. He supposed that he should feel creeped out, but truthfully, he actually felt kind of flattered. And yet, he'd spent the first few days thinking that Riker hated him.

"So, how are you liking Colorado so far?" Stormie asked.

"I'm not sure," Curt said. "It's a lot different, that's for sure. It's colder here, and I don't think it's been sunny once. But, I'm making new friends and finding my place."

"That's good," Stormie said.

Riker's family took turns asking him questions about his family and Texas and adjusting to Colorado. Curt had even had the opportunity to ask them a few questions themselves.

"Let's let Curt finish eating," Mr. Lynch said. "He needs to get home as soon as possible."

They continued their conversation, but Curt focused on finishing his food. Mr. Lynch was right, he should probably be getting home soon.

"What do I do with my plate?" Curt asked once he'd finished eating.

"You can just put it in the sink," Stormie said. "Are you going to leave us now?"

"Yeah," Curt said. "I just have to get my stuff out of Riker's room first."

"I'm walking you home," Riker said.

"You don't have to do that," Curt said.

"Yes, I do," Riker said. "It's dark outside and you've only been living here for like, a week and a half. I'm walking you home whether you want me to or not."

"Good idea," Mr. Lynch said.

Curt and Riker walked back to Riker's room. Curt packed up his stuff, and Riker organized his stuff into a pile and moved it from the floor to his bed.

Then, the two walked back down the hallway.

"Goodbye, Curt," Stormie said. "Thanks for eating dinner with us."

"Thanks for having me," Curt said.

"Bye!" two of Riker's brothers said in unison.

"See you later!" the third one said.

"Come back soon!" Riker's sister said.

"Stay safe!" Mr. Lynch said.

Curt smiled and waved at them, and then walked over to where he'd taken off his shoes and hung up his coat. He slipped back into his shoes, and took his coat off of the hook. After he slipped his coat back on, he slung his backpack over his shoulder and waited for Riker to finish getting his coat and shoes on. Then, the two boys walked out of the door.

It was freezing outside. The cold sliced right through Curt's windbreaker like it was nothing. It looked like Curt was going to have to dig out the winter coat he'd stashed away, not anticipating needing it for another couple of months.

Snow was falling in thick, wet flakes. The ground was already covered in a thin dusting of snow.

"It's so beautiful out here," Curt said.

"Beautiful?" Riker said. "You think that this is _beautiful_?"

"I've only seen snow in pictures and movies," Curt said.

"That makes more sense," Riker said. "Check in with me at the end of winter."

Curt laughed.

"What street do you live on?" Riker asked.

"Murberry Street," Curt said.

"Oh, okay," Riker said. "I know where that is."

Riker led the way. The two boys made their way down to the end of Riker's street, and then Riker turned a corner. Curt was actually grateful that Riker was walking him home. In the darkness, their neighborhood seemed like a completely different place.

"I hope my family didn't weird you out too much," Riker said.

"No," Curt said. "They're all really nice."

"Rocky was exaggerating, by the way," Riker said. "I've mentioned you before, but I don't literally talk about you all of the time."

"It's totally fine," Curt said.

"I'm really glad we're working on this project," Riker said.

"Me too," Curt said.

The conversation kind of died down, but Curt picked it back up.

"Want to know something funny?" Curt said.

"What?" Riker said.

"When I first met you, I thought you hated me," Curt said.

"I don't hate you," Riker said. "I was just a little bit shy."

"I know that now," Curt said.

"Good," Riker said with a smug smile on his face. Snowflakes were clinging to his hair. A gust of wind rushed through the air, cutting through Curt's jacket. Curt shivered.

"It's so cold out here," Curt said.

"Maybe you shouldn't be wearing such a thin jacket, then," Riker said. A big grin spread across Riker's face and he poked Curt in the side.

"I know, I've got to get my winter coat out," Curt said. "I got one just for Colorado."

Riker smiled even more.

"You know, you should smile more," Curt said.

"Me?" Riker said.

"Do you see anyone else out here?" Curt said. The two of them laughed, even though it wasn't really funny.

"Oh, here we go. Murberry Street," Riker said. The boys turned onto the street and continued walking.

"Really, though," Curt said. "You have a great smile."

Riker's smile started to fade. Curt began to sense that something was wrong, and slowed his walking pace down, until finally, the two had stopped.

"What's wrong?" Curt asked.

Riker walked up to him, so that they were only inches apart. Riker cupped Curt's cheek with his hand, just like he'd done in drama club last week. Then, Riker pulled him in quickly and pressed his lips to Curt's. At first, Curt's eyes were wide open, shocked at what Riker was doing, but they closed as Curt found himself relaxing into the kiss. Suddenly, the cold didn't matter, nor did the snow. All he could focus on was Riker's lips on his.

Suddenly, Riker stopped kissing him and jumped backwards. Riker looked at him, his mouth hanging open like he wanted to say something. But he didn't. Instead, he just turned around and left. Curt stood there and watched as Riker scurried off into the darkness.

Curt just stood there and stared at the ground, not really focusing on anything. He tried to process everything that had happened. After a couple of minutes, the cold was really getting to him, so instead Curt continued down the street. He found his house, and then walked inside.

"Hi, sweetie!" his mom called from the kitchen when he'd walked inside.

"Hey, mom," Curt said. He slid off his shoes and hung up his coat. He dropped his backpack by the door before walking into the kitchen.

"How was working with your friend?" his mom said.

"It was…interesting," Curt said.

"Good interesting or bad interesting?" his mom said.

"To be honest mom, I'm really not sure," Curt said.

* * *

**A/N: Well, that's the chapter! Hope you enjoyed it! There will be more to come soon, so don't you go anywhere! **

**Thank you guys for reading this fic, and also thank you for your follows, favorites, and reviews! They certainly do not go unnoticed! **

**Hopefully I'll return soon with Chapter 5! Thanks again for being so awesome, guys! xoxo**


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N: Hey, guys! Chapter 5 has arrived! Hahaha!**

**It's actually kind of funny. One of my dear Tumblr friends who's been reading this was asking me today if I'd be able to get the next chapter up this weekend. I figured that I would, but I didn't think I'd be able to get it up until Sunday/Monday. But then I ended up having a really productive writing night, haha.**

**As a quick note, I do not own Riker or Curt or anyone else you may recognize, but I DO own any original characters that appear here (Finn, Sophie, Adam, etc.)**

**Hope you enjoy Chapter 5!**

* * *

Fortunately, Wednesday ended up being a snow day. Curt celebrated his first-ever snow day by sleeping in and watching movies all day. He shoved his awkward encounter with Riker to the back of his mind and tried to forget about it. It was a difficult task, but he managed to make it work.

On Thursday, school resumed. Walking to the bus stop, Curt was extremely nervous. Riker had _kissed _him. And he'd let him! Ever since Curt woke up yesterday, he'd been asking himself why. Why, why, why? And besides, how was this going to affect their project? How was this going to affect conversations with Finn & Co. at lunch? Curt imagined that it'd have a pretty big impact on everything, since everything was bound to be a little more awkward between them.

Like usual, Curt beat Riker to the bus stop. Marissa didn't seem to be here, which was relieving. Curt could normally tolerate her, but today he was just not in the mood. After a few minutes, Rydel came running up the street, literally dragging Riker behind her.

"Come on, Riker, we're going to be late!" Rydel yelled at him. This only made him drag his feet even more. Rydel let out an exasperated sigh, and continued dragging Riker along.

Him and Riker had really screwed up, hadn't they?

The bus pulled up right on schedule, and Rydel and Riker made it to the back of the line just before kids started getting on. Curt let Riker and Rydel go ahead of him. Riker finally gave up on his silent crusade to be late to school and got on the bus. The second Riker sat down in his and Curt's usual bus seat, Riker pulled out his iPod and slid his earphones in.

That answered Curt's question. They had, indeed, screwed up. This is where they stood. One simple action had brought them back to terms of silence. Curt sighed, knowing he was in for a long and boring bus ride.

He was right.

After what felt like a century, the bus finally pulled up to Littleton High. Curt stood right up, grabbed his backpack, and practically bolted from the school bus. He made his way to his locker and opened it up.

"How was your first snow day?" a voice said beside him. Curt knew immediately that it was either Finn or Adam, but he was too distracted to see which one it was.

"It was pretty good," Curt said. "I slept in, and then woke up and watched movies all day."

Curt turned to see Finn standing beside him, his messenger bag slung around his shoulder and a bright smile on his face.

"What kind of movies?" Finn asked

"Um, a lot of different kinds," Curt said. "There isn't really a specific genre I like."

"Cool," Finn said.

"What'd you do?" Curt asked Finn.

"I had a similar snow day to you," Finn said. "I spent the day with my DVD box sets."

Curt knew from a conversation that they'd had that Finn was a big fan of crime shows. Curt could definitely picture Finn all curled up while watching _CSI: Crime Scene Investigation_ or _Law and Order_ or something like that.

"That's cool," Curt said.

"We've still got twenty minutes until class starts. Want to walk around?" Finn asked. Curt nodded. He closed his locker and started walking with Finn. As if it was the natural flow of the conversation, Finn started talking about the Civics project.

"So, have you gotten started on the project for Civics yet?" Finn asked.

"Yeah. I went over to Riker's on Tuesday night and we began working on it," Curt said.

"You have it so easy," Finn said, shaking his head. "I have to work with Marissa Long."

"She is pretty annoying," Curt said. He knew that he was merely stating the obvious, but it was certainly true.

"She's more than annoying," Finn said. "She's vile."

"Vile? That's a pretty strong word there, bud," Curt said.

"But it's warranted," Finn said. "You don't know about what happened last year, do you?"

"Nope," Curt said.

"I'd tell you, but it's not really my story to tell," Finn said. "Ask Adam or Riker to tell you. I'm sure they would."

Ask Riker? Ha. Like that was going to happen now. Maybe he could ask Adam, though…no. No, he couldn't. It kind of seemed like a top-secret matter, and if it was, then Curt wasn't going to pry. It was as simple as that.

"Let's talk about happier things," Finn suggested.

"Yeah, I'm up for that," Curt said. Talking about the project only brought his mind back to the situation with him and Riker.

The two boys continued walking, until a bright poster on the wall caught both of their eyes.

"What's this about?" Finn asked, looking at the poster. Big lettering read "New York City" on the poster, but that's all Curt could see. Finn was blocking his view of the rest of the poster.

"Well?" Curt said.

"It's an advertisement for the homecoming dance. The theme is 'New York City'," Finn said.

"Interesting," Curt said. Curt wasn't sure if he was supposed to be jumping for joy at this news. He'd never had a school dance to get excited about before.

"We have to go," Finn said.

"Why?" Curt said.

"Because it's fun. I know it sounds strange, but Sophie and Adam dragged Riker and I to homecoming last year, and we all had a blast," Finn said. "We totally have to go again. And you definitely have to come with us."

"I don't know," Curt said, warily. "I've never been to anything like that before."

"Well, now's the perfect opportunity," Finn said. "Come on, please?"

Curt nudged Finn out of the way and looked at the poster. The dance was a little over two weeks away.

"The dance is only two weeks away. How do you expect me to get a tux and a date in that amount of time?" Curt said. Besides Sophie, he wasn't really close with any other girls here.

"It says right on the poster that the attire is semi-formal. Just wear a button-down with some nice pants and maybe a tie. And you don't have to bring a date. You can just go stag if you want," Finn said.

"I don't know," Curt said.

"Come on. You literally have nothing to lose by going," Finn said.

"I guess not, but…" Curt began to say.

"'But' nothing," Finn said, cutting Curt off. "You are going, and you are going to have a lot of fun. I think I've laid out some valid reasons as to why you should come."

"What if I say no?" Curt said.

"Then I'll get Sophie to convince you otherwise," Finn said. "And believe me. She can be very persuasive when she wants to be."

"Fine," Curt said. "I'll go to the dance."

"Awesome!" Finn said.

Curt turned around to look at a clock on a nearby wall. It was time to head back to his locker to get his folder and stuff for language arts.

"Guess we should be getting back, huh?" Finn asked.

"Yeah," Curt sighed.

Curt walked back to his locker and got out his language arts folder and notebook, and then walked to class.

Curt tried to pay attention; he really did. But a lecture on the use of colons wasn't exactly holding his interest. As a result, his thoughts kept wandering back to Riker. He couldn't stop replaying the kiss in his head. There was just something about how cold the air was and how warm Riker's lips were…Curt didn't really want to admit it, but it was a really good kiss. It shouldn't have been. He wasn't gay. That wasn't who he was. But then again, who knew what he was anymore?

Maybe he could give Riker a chance….

No. Absolutely not. Just the idea of having to explain to his family that he was dating another boy seemed awkward. And besides, Riker kissing him didn't automatically mean that he was into Curt. And Curt kissing him back didn't automatically mean that Curt was into him.

Curt ran through these thoughts all through his first four classes. He was sure that his teachers noticed that he wasn't paying attention, but luckily, they didn't say anything about it. Finally, Civics ended, and it was lunch time. Now, he could throw himself into a conversation with Finn, Adam, and Sophie and temporarily forget about everything that was going on with Riker. His Spanish teacher hadn't assigned any homework on Tuesday night, but maybe after he got done eating, him and Adam could translate that magazine that had Zac Efron on the cover. That was bound to keep himself distracted enough.

When Curt got to the lunch table, he was surprised to see that Riker wasn't sitting with them. In retrospect, it shouldn't have been surprising. Riker was probably going through the exact same thing that Curt was. But still, it was weird to not have him there.

"So, did you see that advertisements for homecoming are up?" Finn asked, sitting down in his usual seat next to Curt.

"Yeah," Sophie said. "It looks like it's going to be pretty awesome this year."

"It's going to be so much better than that lame 'under-the-stars' theme they did last year," Finn said.

"At least you weren't there for the 'Wild, Wild, West' theme two years ago," Sophie said. "Now that was pretty tacky."

"Curt, are you going to go to the dance?" Adam asked.

"Yeah, he is," Finn said. "We had this discussion earlier."

Sophie looked over and gave Curt a nod of approval.

"It's going to be a blast," Sophie said to Curt.

Curt seriously doubted it, but he played along anyways.

"Hey, just out of curiosity, where's Riker?" Curt asked.

"Uh, no clue," Adam said.

"He said something about having a big test coming up," Finn said. "I think he's in the library having a study session. Why?"

"I need to talk to him," Curt said.

"About what?" Finn asked, looking slightly suspicious.

"The project for Civics class," Curt said.

"You and Riker are doing a project together?" Adam asked.

"Yeah," Curt said.

"What's the project?" Sophie asked.

"It's this partner project where we have to make our own countries," Finn said.

"Who's your partner?" Adam asked Finn.

"Marissa Long," Finn sighed. In the split second following Finn's reply, Sophie and Adam's expressions turned to those of pure rage.

"Marissa? You're working with _Marissa_?" Sophie asked.

"Why?" Adam asked.

"Mrs. Butler selected our partners for us," Finn said. "I asked Mrs. Butler to change mine, but she said that all partners are final."

"Rats!" Sophie said.

"I'm just going to go find Riker," Curt said. "I'll be right back."

"He doesn't know about the Marissa thing, does he?" Adam asked.

"Nope," Finn said.

"We'll have to fill him in," Sophie said.

"Not today, but soon," Adam said, agreeing.

"See you guys soon," Curt said.

Curt stood up and pushed in his chair. He walked out of the cafeteria and down the hallway to where the library was. Curt walked up and down the rows, looking for where Riker might be hiding out. Littleton High School had a surprisingly big library, and there were lots of little nooks and crannies where someone could hide out in.

When Curt didn't find him hiding in the stacks, he began to check the computer kiosks. When Riker didn't turn up there, he wandered over to the study cubicles and started poking around. Finally, Curt caught a glimpse of the tall, lanky blonde that he was looking for.

He was sitting at one of the study cubicles, trying to use the walls of the cubicle to conceal the fact that he was eating a sandwich. The library wasn't occupied by very many students at the moment, and all but three of the study cubicles were open. The cubicles on either side of Riker were open. Curt walked over to one of the cubicles beside Riker and sat down next to him. The sound of someone sitting down next to him made Riker slide out from the cubicle just enough to see who it was. When Riker locked eyes with Curt, he stood up and bolted.

Curt followed him. First, Riker dashed into the sea of stacks. His escape attempt was promptly shut down by one of the librarians.

"No running in the library, Mr. Lynch," she scolded. Riker stopped dead in his tracks. Before Riker could try to escape again, Curt grabbed ahold of Riker's wrist gently but firmly.

"Riker. Hey, Riker. Listen to me," Curt said.

"What?" Riker said. It came out sounding like a little squeak. He refused to look at Curt.

"I'm not mad at you," Curt said.

"You're not?" Riker said.

"No, I'm not," Curt said. "And before you ask, I'm not lying, either."

Riker turned around and looked at Curt.

"I just don't know what got into me," Riker said. He paused, searching for the words to say next.

"I totally understand," Curt said. "I'm not really sure what got into me either."

Riker looked at him. Curt waited for him to say something, but when he didn't, Curt continued on.

"We can't let this come between us," Curt said. "I mean, we have a really important project that we're partners on that we have to get done. We have friends that we can't let down. So let's just put _it _behind us. I'll pretend it never happened if you will. Deal?"

"Deal," Riker said, nodding.

"Good," Curt said. "Now, Finn, Sophie, Adam, and I would really appreciate it if you stopped hiding out in the library and came and ate lunch with us."

"Do they know?" Riker asked. "You know…about _it_."

"No," Curt said, shaking his head for emphasis. "I am many things, but a kiss-and-tell is not one of them."

"Good," Riker said.

Curt let his eyes linger on Riker for a couple of seconds more. Suddenly, Curt was faced with the urge to kiss Riker again. They were well hidden between a few shelves. They could kiss right here, and no one would ever know about it. But he knew that it would only spell out more trouble for the two of them if he did. They had just recovered from their first kiss, and Curt knew that they really couldn't afford a second.

So instead, Curt let Riker's wrist go and turned to walk away.

"No one's forcing you to do anything," Curt said. "But it'd mean a lot to all of us if you came and ate lunch with us."

Riker gave Curt a shy little smile. Curt smiled back at him, and then turned and left the library.

* * *

**A/N: That's it for Chapter 5! I know that this chapter was a little slow, but Chapter 6 should be pretty interesting.**

**Oh, I almost forgot to mention. I set up a blog on Tumblr for this fic. The blog is so I can post updates on the fic and index all of my links to the chapters. I'll post some other fun stuff later. Right now I have one of the "cut scenes" from the fic on there. Maybe I'll post more. The username is upperhandrikurt if you wanna check it out. It's a sideblog off my main blog, so...yeah. **

**Anyways, thank you all for reading this! Your reviews, follows, and favorites certainly do not go unnoticed! Niff you all! **

**Hopefully I'll be back soon with Chapter 6! Bye!**


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N: Hello, guys! I'm back with Chapter 6! I wanted to have this done earlier, but I ended up having this insanely busy week at school and so I couldn't get it done until tonight. **

**As always, I do not own Curt, Riker, or any of the other Lynches. Also, I mean absolutely no harm in the writing of this story. On the contrary, I do own all of the original characters, like Finn, Sophie, etc.**

**Sorry for the delay, guys. I hope you enjoy the Chapter.**

* * *

On Monday, Curt found himself back at the lunch table. The talk that he'd had with Riker had seemed to clear everything up. They had promised that they were going to forget it ever happened, and so far, both of them were keeping that promise. Now, they were free to focus on more important things. Like their Civics project, or the school dance that was coming up.

Sophie, Finn, and Adam were already seated at the table. Riker wasn't here quite yet, but he was going to be here soon.

Riker came running over to their table not even two minutes later. His eyes were practically glowing with excitement, and a big grin stretched across his face.

"Whoa. What's up?" Finn asked as Riker dropped his lunch tray onto the table and sat down.

"I have a date to homecoming," Riker said, scooting his chair up to the table.

"Good for you, man!" Finn said, looking genuinely excited for Riker. "Who is it?"

"Tiffany Evans," Riker said.

Finn's face fell, but he managed to quickly recover his look of happiness.

"She's hot," Finn said, nodding.

"I know," Riker said. "I'm so excited."

"So, Adam, are you going to bring—" Sophie started to say.

"Absolutely not," Adam said, cutting Sophie off. "That is a death sentence and you know it."

Curt felt like he was finding his place in Littleton, but there were still times when he felt like an outsider. This was one of those times. Not only was there something that had evidently happened with Marissa last year, but now Adam apparently had some secret girlfriend that he couldn't bring to the dance.

"So, how'd you get Tiffany Evans to agree to go to the dance with you?" Finn asked.

"I asked her point-blank. She said yes," Riker said.

"Cool," Finn said.

Curt feigned a smile. He should be really happy for Riker. He'd never seen this Tiffany Evans girl before, but if she was really as cute as Finn and Riker were making her out to be, then he should be happy for him.

"Okay, aside from the 'who's-taking-who' thing, are we going to do what we did last year?" Sophie asked.

"What'd you guys do last year?" Curt asked.

"Nothing all that interesting," Finn said. "We went out for dinner before the dance, and our parents talked us into taking a few pictures, and then we went to the dance."

"I know it sounds boring, but it was a blast," Sophie said.

"So I keep hearing," Curt said.

Everyone besides Curt laughed.

"Yeah, I don't see why we can't do that again," Finn said.

"Unless Riker's too cool for us now that he has a pretty date," Sophie said.

"Do I detect some jealousy, Sophie?" Riker asked, a grin spreading across his face.

"No," Sophie said.

"Really? Because that's what it sounds like to me," Riker said.

"If she's so worried about having a date, then I'll go with her," Adam said.

"Aw," Sophie said.

"Alright, so, if Riker has a date, and Sophie and Adam are each other's fake dates, then that leaves me and Curt—"

"I'm not going to the dance as your date," Curt said, cutting Finn off.

Finn started laughing.

"I wasn't going to say that, dude. Don't be so defensive," Finn said.

"Sorry," Curt said.

"It's okay," Finn said. "I'm not mad at you. It was just funny."

Curt decided that it would be better if he didn't speak for a little bit, so he turned his attention down to his food. He ate quietly while the others discussed homecoming. After a few minutes, Curt looked up from his food to see Marissa coming his way.

"Something wicked this way comes," Sophie said, sighing.

"What do you want?" Adam asked when Marissa reached the table.

"I'm not here to talk to you Martella, nor am I here to talk to your boyfriend," she said, gesturing at Riker. "I'm not here to talk to Miss Disney Princess or Fish Lips here either."

"Then why are you here?" Finn asked.

"I'm here to talk to Curt," Marissa said.

"Uh-oh," Riker said under his breath.

"Do you have a date to homecoming?" Marissa asked.

Curt had the feeling that he knew what she was getting at. For a second, he was tempted to lie, but there were only a million ways that that could go wrong. So, instead, he told the truth.

"No," Curt said.

"I don't have a date either," Marissa said. "Would you maybe want to go with me?"

"Oh, gee," Curt said. "Look, I'm really flattered, Marissa, but I'm going to have to say no."

"Boom!" Adam said, yelling. "You heard the man! Get out of here."

Marissa shot Adam a dirty look, but then turned around and left.

"Two seconds with that girl is two too many," Finn said.

"Does she really think that 'Miss Disney Princess' is an insult?" Sophie asked.

"'Fish Lips' isn't much of one either," Adam said, shaking his head.

"What'd she do to you guys to make you hate her so much?" Curt asked. He had told himself he wasn't going to ask, but curiosity was finally starting to get the better of him.

"I think it's time to tell him," Finn said.

"No way," Riker said, not looking at Curt.

"I hate to say this Riker, but I agree with Finn," Sophie said.

"I also agree," Adam said.

"I uh, just remembered," Riker said. "I have to go find Tiffany and ask her something. I'll be back later."

Riker stood up and walked away. After he was gone, Finn started to tell the story of what happened last year between them and Marissa.

"Well, it all started last year when Marissa got a crush on Riker. At first Riker thought it was cute and kind of flattering, but he just didn't feel the same way back about her. After a while, her constant flirting started to make him feel uncomfortable, and so he told her that he didn't feel the same way back," Finn said.

"Unfortunately, she's not used to not getting what she wants," Adam said. "So one day, she started spreading around a rumor that she caught Riker and me kissing."

"You'd think that it wouldn't be a big deal," Finn said. "Except for there was one problem: everyone believed her."

"We became instant outcasts," Adam said. "And not just Riker and I, but Finn and Sophie and whoever else dared to associate with us."

"And that was before all of the bullying started," Finn said.

"Bullying?" Curt said.

"Oh yeah," Finn said. "Now, we're not going to go into graphic detail on that, but all four of us were bullied. It got pretty bad."

"It got so bad that Riker started asking his parents to let him move to California," Adam said.

"California?" Curt said.

"Yeah," Sophie said. "Riker wants to be a movie star."

"Well, an entertainer. He hasn't specified what aspect of entertaining he wants to do," Finn said.

"For all we know he could want to be a magician," Adam said with a shrug.

"Yeah," Finn said.

"Wow. That's awful," Curt said.

"Yeah," Adam said.

"So whatever you do, don't get tangled up with her," Adam said.

"She is dangerous," Sophie said.

"Couldn't agree more," Adam said.

"Let's talk about something happier," Finn said.

Curt nodded. It definitely sounded like a good idea.

"I would invite Riker back over here but it looks like he's busy," Adam said, gesturing over to a nearby table.

Riker was sitting next to a girl with curly blonde hair and bright green eyes. He looked calm and content as he talked with her. Perhaps Curt stared for a little too long, because Riker looked over at Curt and flashed a smile at him. Curt couldn't help but smile back.

"Look at them," Finn sighed.

"Yeah, they look really happy," Sophie said. "This is so good for him."

"It is," Adam said. "But you have to admit, it does seem a little random."

"Yeah," Finn said.

"So, that's Tiffany," Curt said, looking at the blonde girl.

"That's her alright," Finn said.

"Wow," Curt said. To say that Tiffany was pretty was a huge understatement. She was beautiful. She also looked like she was a really nice person.

"You okay?" Finn asked.

"Are you talking to me?" Curt said.

"Yeah. You're just kind of staring off into space," Finn said.

"I'm fine," Curt said. "I just lost my train of thought. That's all.

"Do you want to head to the library after I finish this cupcake?" Adam asked.

"We didn't have any homework, did we?" Curt said.

"No, but I thought that we could translate that magazine cover with Zac Efron on it," Adam said.

"Sure, why not?" Curt said.

Adam finished his cupcake, and then the two went to the library. They still couldn't translate the magazine cover, so when the free period was over, they gave up and went to Spanish class. The rest of the day ticked away slowly, and finally, Curt was on the bus ride home.

By now, Curt had grown used to stepping onto the bus to see Riker sitting in their seat. Curt walked over to the seat and sat down.

"Hey," Riker said.

"Hi," Curt said. He set his backpack down on the ground and turned to Riker.

"So, have you forgotten about our project?" Riker asked. "For Civics class?"

"Nope," Curt said.

"Well, I was thinking that we should probably get together again soon so we could work on it," Riker said.

"Yeah, totally," Curt said. "When did you have in mind? I'm pretty much free whenever."

"Would this Saturday work?" Riker said.

"Yeah," Curt said.

"Cool. It'll have to be sometime in the afternoon because I like to sleep in," Riker said. "Does two in the afternoon work?"

"I'll have to ask my parents," Curt said. "I don't see why it wouldn't work, seeing as I can just walk over there, but you can never be too sure, I guess."

"Cool," Riker said.

"I'm kind of surprised that you don't have plans with Tiffany," Curt said.

"Really? Why?" Riker said.

"It's just that since you two are kind of an item now, I'd think that you two would be going on a date or something," Curt said.

"Oh," Riker said. He shrugged. "As far as I know, we aren't doing anything until the dance."

"Well, it's good for me," Curt said.

"Why?" Riker asked.

"So we can work on the project," Curt said. "I'm sure that these next two weeks are going to fly right by."

"Yeah," Riker said. "That's kind of how it goes."

Curt smiled.

"I agree," Curt said. Time had the tendency to pass way too quickly. After finding out he was moving, his last couple of months in Texas seemed to fly right by.

Curt realized that he hadn't actually talked to his Texas friends since he left for Colorado. Not that he could really help it. He was still adjusting to life in Colorado. That, combined with the amount of homework he had on a nightly basis, was keeping him really busy. Maybe tonight, if he had time, he'd get on Facebook and check in with them.

Since the conversation between them had seemed to die down, Riker started listening to his iPod. The two didn't talk until the bus pulled into their neighborhood and dropped them off at the bus stop.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Riker said after they'd gotten off the bus.

"Goodbye," Curt said. Curt started walking back towards his house when a voice called after him.

"Curt! Hey, Curt! Can I talk to you for a second?" Marissa said. Curt groaned, but stopped walking and turned around.

"Yes?" Curt said.

"When I asked you to the dance earlier, did you only say no because your friends wanted you to? Because peer pressure isn't cool," Marissa said.

"You know what else isn't cool?" Curt said. "Bullying."

"What are you talking about?" Marissa asked.

Curt knew that he should stop talking. This wasn't his battle to fight: it was Adam and Riker's. But still, Curt couldn't seem to contain himself.

"I'm talking about that rumor you spread around last year about Adam and Riker kissing," Curt said. "Yeah, that's right. They told me about that."

"I wasn't making that up," Marissa said.

"Don't think that you can pull that stuff with me. I know that it was a rumor you made up just because Riker wouldn't go out with you," Curt said.

"Why won't you believe me," Marissa said. "They were kissing. And it was just wrong, not to mention disgusting."

"Whether they were or weren't kissing doesn't matter," Curt said. "It wasn't any of your business. You shouldn't have spread that around."

"I know," Marissa said. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize to me. Apologize to Riker and Adam," Curt said. "It was nice for you to think of me and ask me to the dance, but I just don't feel that way about you."

Marissa looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"I'm really sorry," she said.

"Don't be," Curt said. Then, Marissa turned and left. Curt did feel a little bad for yelling at her the way he did, but he just didn't have any respect for her anymore.

Curt started to turn around when someone caught his eye. It was Riker. He was just standing there and staring at Curt with an awestruck expression on his face. It took Curt a few seconds, but then he realized that Riker had witnessed that entire confrontation between him and Marissa.

Curt didn't really know how he was going to explain this all to Riker. So, he didn't. Instead, he gripped the shoulder straps of his backpack and started back on his way home.

* * *

**Well, that's it for Chapter 6. I hope it was okay.**

**And also, thanks for the reviews, favorites, and follows. They always make me smile :) **

**I have this entire week off of school, and so I plan to use it to write! Hopefully, I'll be back really, really soon with the next chapter.**

**Hasta luego! xoxo**


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hey guys, I'm back with Chapter 7!**

**As always, I don't own Riker, Curt, the Lynches, etc. However, I do own all OC's that appear here, such as Finn, Adam, Sophie, etc. Also, this story is entirely fictional, and none of these events happened in real life, and I mean absolutely no harm to Curt Mega or R5 through the writing of this story.**

**This is another slow chapter, and I apologize for that. However, I have big plans for the next couple of chapters, so stay tuned!**

**Happy reading!**

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This time, Curt wasn't nervous. He stepped right up onto the Lynch's doorstep and knocked on the door. This time, one of Riker's brothers was the one to answer the door. Unfortunately, Curt couldn't remember his name. Hell, Curt couldn't remember any of Riker's brother's names.

"Hi," the boy said.

"Hi," Curt said. "I'm sorry, but what's your name again?"

"Rocky," the boy said.

Okay. So we had Rydel like Rydell High and Rocky like the Rocky Mountains. He could remember that much. So, now all he had to do was come up with tricks to remember the rest of Riker's sibling's names, and then they'd all be good to go.

"Alright," Curt said. "I'll try to remember that this time."

"Come on in," Rocky said. Curt stepped inside and slid off his shoes. He hung his jacket on one of the hooks.

"Riker, your friend's here!" Rocky yelled. Curt heard footsteps thundering up the hallway as Riker came running over. He stopped short when he saw Curt.

"Hey," Riker said. The corners of his mouth turned up to form a smile.

"Hi," Curt said, smiling back.

It seemed to be kind of a lazy afternoon at the Lynch household. Riker's two other brothers were playing a video game, and Rydel was on the computer that was in the living room. Mrs. Lynch was washing dishes, and Rocky was making his way over to where the two boys were playing video games.

"Should we go ahead and get started?" Riker asked.

"Yeah," Curt said. Riker turned around, and the two boys started walking back towards Riker's room.

"Hello," Stormie said as the two boys walked by.

"Hi, Mrs. Lynch," Curt said. "How are you?"

"You can call me Stormie, remember?" Stormie said. "And I'm doing well, thank you. How are you?"

"I'm doing pretty well myself," Curt said.

"That's good. So, Riker tells me that you boys are working on your project today," Stormie said.

"Yeah," Curt said.

"Well, good for you two. I'm wondering if your brothers got their homework done before they turned on that video game," Stormie said. She walked out of the kitchen and into the living room. "Boys, do you have your homework done?"

"Of course," the blond boy said. The brunet boy just looked up and gave her a guilty look."

"Ryland, go do your homework," Stormie said. Ryland reluctantly got up and walked to his bedroom.

"Yes, my turn!" Rocky said, jumping in to take Ryland's place. Curt couldn't think of a trick for remembering Ryland, so he just repeated Ryland's name over and over again in his head.

"Is your homework done?" she asked him.

"Yes, mom," Rocky said.

"Alright, then," she said. Then, she turned back to Curt and Riker. "Work hard, you two. If you need anything, just let me know."

"Thanks, mom," Riker said. The two boys resumed walking to Riker's room. When they stepped inside, Curt could see that Riker had gotten everything out.

"So where do you want to start?" Curt asked.

"Since we have the basics down, I thought that we could start by working on the flag," Riker said.

"Sounds reasonable," Curt said. "Let's get to it."

The two sat down on Riker's floor, just as they had the first time they'd worked on the project.

"What's your favorite color?" Riker asked.

"Red," Curt said.

"Mine's blue, so we'll make our flag blue and red," Riker said.

"Sounds good," Curt said.

The two discussed design ideas for their flag. They decided to keep it simple. The base of the flag was going to be blue, with a red emblem that bore the letter A in the middle of the flag. Riker sketched the outline of the emblem with the A on a plain white sheet of paper. After that, he darkened it in with a black sharpie. Then they each took a blue colored pencil and colored in the base. When that was done, Riker took a red colored pencil and colored in the emblem.

"I think it looks better when we leave the A white," Riker said.

"I agree," Curt said.

"I guess that means we're done with the flag," Riker said.

"Do you think it looks okay?" Curt said. Riker shrugged.

"I bet that some of the kids in our class will have a better looking flag, but I think we're okay," Riker said. "Here, let's see what my family thinks."

The two left Riker's bedroom, walking out to the living room.

"Hello, boys," Stormie said.

"What do you think of our flag?" Riker asked, holding it up.

"Wow, that's cool," Stormie said, taking it from Riker to examine it. "Good job, boys."

"Thanks," Riker said.

"I want to see!" one of Riker's brothers said. He was the blond one who'd been playing a video game with Ryland before he had to go do homework. He was the only one whose name Curt couldn't remember.

"Which one is he again?" Curt whispered in Riker's ear.

"Ross," Riker said.

Back in Texas, Curt had known a kid named Ross from the theater. It was going to be easy to remember his name.

"What?" Ross asked Riker.

"Oh, he was just asking me for your name and I was telling him it," Riker said.

"Okay," Ross said. Stormie handed the flag to Ross, and Ross looked at it.

"Cool," Ross said, handing it back to Riker.

"I guess that settles it," Riker said.

"Dinner should be ready in about an hour," she said.

"It's that time already?" Riker said.

"Yeah, you guys have been working for almost two hours now," Stormie said.

"Wow," Curt said.

"I guess that time flies when you're having fun," Riker said.

"Yeah," Curt said.

"Alright, you two, get back to work," Stormie said.

The two boys walked back to Riker's room and sat back down.

"I hate to say this, but we still have a paper and a map to do," Riker said.

"Let's work on the map while we have the coloring stuff out," Curt said.

"Good idea," Riker said.

"But first we should probably talk about what our country even looks like," Curt said.

"Yeah," Riker said. "I mean we know right away that the edges of the island are all beaches."

"Yeah," Curt said.

The two worked inland from there. Beyond the beaches were the residential neighborhoods. They mapped out where the schools were going to be. At this point, Riker made a rough draft of the map in his notebook. They decided that this would be the best place for the hospital and a couple of fire stations. Then beyond the neighborhoods was the downtown area with all of the shops. They went back and allotted room for an airport by taking out some of the neighborhood portion. Then, in the middle of the island were the government buildings. Azroth was going to have two courthouses, a jail, and then the main government buildings.

"Alright, so now we just have to transfer this to poster board and—"

"Dinner!" Stormie yelled, cutting Riker off.

"Never mind, I guess it's time to eat now," Riker said.

The two boys stood up and walked out of the room. Riker's siblings were already sitting down at the table. Riker and Curt took their seats next to them. As soon as they got the rest of the food on the table, they started to fill their plates with food. Tonight's dinner was meatloaf, it looked like. Before long, they were all happily eating.

"Hey, Riker, can I tag along with you and your friends to the dance next Saturday?" Rydel asked.

"I thought you already had a group you were going with," Riker said.

"I did," Rydel said. "But they bailed on me."

"Who were you supposed to go with?" Riker asked.

"Well, it was supposed to be me, Marissa Long, and our dates. But the guy Marissa wanted to go with said no, and the guy I wanted to go with asked another girl, and now Marissa's not going to go," Rydel said.

Curt suddenly felt really bad. He was the guy that Marissa had asked, and he'd said no. Now, Marissa had abandoned the idea of going to homecoming altogether, and unless Riker said yes, Rydel didn't have any means of going.

"Excuse me, but who's this guy?" Riker said.

"Riker, calm down," Curt said.

"Yeah, you don't need to go and beat him up or anything, I just want to know if I can come along with you guys," Rydel said.

"Seriously, though, who is he?" Riker said.

"Riker," Stormie said. "Just answer your sister's question."

"Yeah," Riker said. "You can tag along with us."

"Yay! Thank you," Rydel said.

"No problem," Riker said. "But if you change your mind about wanting this guy beat up…"

"Riker. He's stronger than you. You'd get pummeled," Rydel said.

Riker shrugged and then took a bite of his meatloaf.

"So, who all is going to this?" Mr. Lynch asked.

"Me, Curt, Finn, Sophie, Adam, Tiffany, and now, Rydel," Riker said.

"Who's Tiffany?" Rocky asked.

"She's my date to the dance, remember?" Riker said, starting to blush a little. "The one I was telling you about?"

"Really? Because the last time I checked, you had a crush on—" Rocky started to say.

"Okay, I get it!" Riker said. Rocky gave him a smug smile.

"High school," Mark said to Stormie.

"Aren't you glad we're past that age?" Stormie said.

"Definitely," Mark said.

"So, are you guys going to be meeting up at the dance?" Stormie asked.

"No, we're meeting at the Chinese place," Riker said.

"Oh, okay," Stormie said.

"Marissa says that that place violates so many health code violations," Rydel said.

"Don't listen to a word she says," Riker said.

"Why?" Rydel asked.

"Because, she's awful," Riker said. "Everyone thinks that Chinese restaurants have health code violations. It's a stupid racist stereotype."

"Since when did you get so passionate about Chinese restaurants?" Rocky asked.

"Never mind that," Riker said. "The point is that we're meeting up at the Chinese place before the dance, and then we'll head over to the school for the dance. Okay?"

"Okay," Rydel said.

"What time?" Stormie asked.

"I don't know yet," Riker said. "The dance starts at eight, but I don't know if we're going to go to the whole thing."

"I'll ask Finn on Monday," Curt said.

"Okay," Riker said.

"Sounds good," Rydel said. "This is going to be so much fun!"

"She's obviously never been to a school dance before," Riker whispered in Curt's ear.

"But Finn wouldn't shut up about how much fun you guys had last year," Curt said.

"Yeah, well here's one thing you need to know about Finn," Riker said. "He only speaks for himself. Last year's dance was alright, but like I'm sure you've heard, the homecoming committee stayed strictly inside the box."

"Yeah, that's what Finn said," Curt said.

"Uh-huh," Riker said.

"Well, I'm sure that you all will have fun," Stormie said.

After that, they moved on to another topic of conversation. After everyone was done eating, they cleaned up the stuff from dinner, and then Curt and Riker went back to Riker's room.

"What time are you supposed to go home?" Riker asked.

"I told my mom that I'd be home at seven," Curt said.

"It's about 6:30 right now," Riker said. "We don't have enough time to do the map. And on top of that, we still have the paper to do. That's not good."

The project was due a week from Monday. Riker was right, it wasn't good. They didn't have very much time left.

"Well, let's get started on it," Curt said. "Then, I'll do the paper if you'll finish the map. Sound like a deal?"

"Yeah, that sounds like a fair deal," Riker said.

They got the island itself sketched out before it was time for Curt to head home. Then, Curt packed up his things and the two boys made their way to the front door.

"Are you going to leave now?" Stormie asked.

"Yeah," Curt said. "I promised my mom I'd be home by now."

"Alright. Thanks for coming over, Curt," Stormie said.

"Thanks for having me," Curt said.

"I'm going to walk him home, okay mom?" Riker said.

"Okay," Stormie said. "Be careful, you two."

"We will," Curt said.

"Bye."

The boys got their coats and shoes on, and then walked outside.

"Don't worry, this won't be a repeat of what happened last time," Riker said.

"I'm not worried about that," Curt said.

"Good," Riker said. "Hey, I wanted to say thank you."

"For what?" Curt said.

"For what you said to Marissa the other day," Riker said. "You know, at the bus stop?"

"Oh, that," Curt said.

"I've never had anyone stick up for me like that before," Riker said. "Like I said before, thanks."

"No problem," Curt said.

The two boys continued walking until they finally arrived at Murberry street.

"Is there really such a thing as a Murberry?" Curt asked.

"Beats me," Riker said as they neared Curt's house. "Now, I believe this is your stop?"

"Yeah," Curt said.

"I'll see you on Monday, okay?" Riker said, smiling at Curt.

"Yeah, see you then," Curt said. He smiled back, not being able to help it.

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**That's it for Chapter 7! As I said earlier, I have big plans for the next couple of chapters, so please stay tuned.**

**Your reviews, follows, and favorites make me smile. Thank you, guys! You all rock! You seriously have no idea how much this all means to me.**

**I'll be back soon with Chapter 8. Love you all! xoxo**


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N: Hello, guys! I am back with Chapter 8! Here we have the long-awaited (lol not really) dance chapter :) **

**I would just like to say that I do not own, nor am I affiliated with Curt Mega, Riker Lynch, or any other people who appear in this story. On the contrary, I do own all of the original characters that appear in this story (like Finn O'Brien, Adam Martella, Sophie Woods, etc.) All of the events that happen in this story are entirely fictional, and I mean no harm to Curt Mega or R5 through the writing of this story. **

**This chapter is quite a bit longer than usual, so I hope that you enjoy it!**

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Homecoming week was in full swing when they returned to school on Monday. Even though Curt didn't participate in any of the dress-up days, he still enjoyed seeing kids walk down the halls wearing interesting costumes. On Friday, the sports teams had their homecoming games, and Saturday was the dance.

Curt had gone through all of the dressier clothes he'd brought with him to Colorado to pick something to wear to the dance. He originally was going to wear a black shirt with black pants and a black tie, but he was going to a school dance, not a funeral. So, he swapped out his black dress shirt for a charcoal gray one. His mom had ironed them today, and he'd just put them on. After getting dressed and combing his hair, he was ready to go.

Curt walked down the stairs. His parents were waiting at the bottom.

"Look at you!" his mom said. "Let me get a picture."

"Mom," Curt said, groaning.

"Oh, come on, just one picture," she said.

"You say that every time," Curt said.

"Here, stand against this wall," she said. Curt stood with his back to the wall, and his mom took a picture.

"Oh wait; that came out too dark, let me turn the flash on," she said. Curt stood with his back to the wall, and his mom took another picture, this time with the flash on.

"That one was blurry. Just one more time, and I think it'll be perfect," she said.

Curt smiled for one more picture.

"Perfect," she said.

"Our little boy is growing up," Curt's dad said to his mom.

"I know," she said.

"You guys should probably get going," his dad said.

"Yeah, we should. You don't want to be late to meet your friends," Curt's mom said.

"You have fun now," Curt's dad said.

"I will. Thanks, dad," Curt said.

Curt had managed to find his dress shoes, so he put those on while his mom grabbed her purse. A couple of minutes later, they were in the car.

The Chinese restaurant wasn't too far away. The name of the place was Qing Palace, and it was located in the parking lot of a beat-up strip mall. Several of the letters on the sign had burned out, adding to the overall sketchy feel of the place.

"Let's go inside," his mom said. Curt stepped out of the car, shuddering from the cold. Even though the snow they'd gotten a few weeks ago had melted, it was still very cold outside. They walked into the restaurant. There was a woman waiting by the door.

"Good evening," the woman said.

"Hi, we're meeting a group of people here?" Curt's mom said.

"Ah, yes, right this way," she said. She led them to where Sophie, Adam, and Finn were sitting. They were the only ones in the restaurant.

"Can I get you something to drink?" she asked. "We serve Pepsi products."

"Can I have a diet Pepsi?" Curt's mom asked.

"Sure," the waitress said. "And for you, sir?"

"Water is fine, thanks," Curt said.

"I'll be back momentarily with your drinks," she said. Curt and his mom took their seats. A few tables had been pushed together to allot enough room for everyone to sit.

"So, introduce me to your friends," Curt's mom said.

"That's Finn, Adam, and Sophie," Curt said, gesturing to each person as he said their name. "Guys, this is my mom."

"Hi, nice to meet you," Finn said, shaking her hand. Adam and Sophie followed suit.

"This isn't all of them," Curt said. "We should have three more coming."

Then, the waitress came back with Curt's water and his mom's soda.

"I'll be back in a few minutes to take your order," she said, setting the glasses down in front of them and handing them straws.

"Oh, Riker's here," Finn said. Curt turned to see Riker, Rydel, and Tiffany walking in the door with Stormie. The waitress ran over to them, and then escorted them to the table.

"Mom, that's Riker, Rydel, and Tiffany. Tiffany is Riker's date," Curt said.

"Nice to meet you all," Curt's mom said.

"Alright, let me get their order first and then I'll get your drinks," the waitress said.

"We'll just get the buffet," Curt's mom said. The waitress nodded and then took Riker, Rydel, Stormie, and Tiffany's drink orders.

"Hey, Finn, where'd your mom go?" Sophie asked.

"She had to run to the bank before it closed," Finn said. "She'll be back soon."

"We should probably go ahead and get our food," Adam said.

"Yeah," Finn said. Finn, Sophie, and Adam walked over to the buffet line. Curt decided to get up and get his food too. His mom was now happily talking to Stormie.

"For your reference, I would avoid the sweet-and-sour chicken," Finn whispered in Curt's ear. "It's a one-way street to food poisoning."

"He's only made that mistake a million times," Adam said to Curt. Curt couldn't help but laugh. Curt wasn't really in much of a chicken mood, so instead he got some fried rice and wonton soup. As they were making their way back to the table, Riker, Rydel, and Tiffany were going up to the buffet to get theirs. They sat down at the table and started eating. Shortly after that, Finn's mom returned.

"Hey, mom!" Finn said.

"Hi," Finn's mom said. Finn's mom surveyed the group of kids. She stopped when she saw Curt. "You must be Curt. I'm Finn's mom."

"Hi," Curt said. He shook her hand. After that, the moms went over to a different table, leaving the kids all by themselves.

"Uh-oh, the official mom discussion has begun," Finn said. "We're never going to be getting out of here."

"Being trapped here might not be so bad," Riker said. "We've got food. A bathroom. We could push some of these chairs together to create beds."

"Or we could just sleep on the booths," Adam said.

"What do you think they even talk about?" Curt asked.

"A better question would be 'do we want to know?'" Finn said.

"I'm kind of scared to eat this," Tiffany said, holding up her fork. A piece of sesame chicken was on it. "I've heard bad things about this place."

"You're fine," Finn said.

"Finn's one true love is Chinese food," Adam said.

"I've had everything in this restaurant at least once," Finn said. "As long as you avoid the sweet-and-sour chicken, you should be okay."

"Okay," Tiffany said, smiling a little. Gingerly, she took a bite out of her sesame chicken. Curt figured that it must have tasted okay, because she didn't hesitate to take another bite. They all ate for a few minutes, and then the waitress came back.

"Is everything tasting okay?" she asked.

"Perfect," Finn said.

"May I ask what the occasion is?" the waitress asked. "You are all dressed up."

"We're going to a school dance tonight," Finn answered.

"Ah!" the waitress said. "May I ask what school?"

"Littleton High School," Finn said.

"There are several high schools in the area, so you can never be sure," the waitress said. She was right. There were three high schools in Littleton alone. Curt knew that from when his parents were looking at schools here. After they'd bought the house and made the decision to send Curt back to school, they had to figure out where Curt was going to be going to school. Where you went to school depended on where you lived, and finding out where Curt was supposed to go was an unnecessarily difficult process.

"Yeah," Finn said.

"Well, if you need anything else, let me know," the waitress said before walking away.

Curt wondered if the restaurant was always this empty or if it was just because they were eating kind of late. Soon, they'd all finished eating, and talked to each other while they waited for the moms to stop talking so they could go. Finally, Stormie looked over to see that they were all done.

"Alright, we just want to get a few pictures," Stormie said. The group collectively groaned, but stood up and walked over to the moms.

"Why don't we take them by that wall over there," Curt's mom suggested. The kids walked over and took their place by the wall that Mrs. Mega had pointed out.

First, they took a couple of group shots. Then, Stormie took a couple of Riker and Tiffany, and then took a couple of Rydel by herself. Curt's mom and Finn's mom snapped a couple of pictures of Curt and Finn. As a joke, they posed like a couple in one of them. Then, Finn's mom took a couple of Sophie and Adam for their parents. Then they took a picture of only the girls, and then they did one with only the guys. After that, the moms finally decided that they had taken enough pictures, and then they paid the bill so they could leave.

Before they left, the waitress gave them each a mint.

"Normally I would give you all fortune cookies, but I thought that you guys might like mints better since you guys are going to a dance," she said.

"Thanks," Finn said. They managed to hold their giggles in until they were safely outside of the restaurant.

"What does she think we're going to be doing at the dance?" Tiffany asked. Riker shrugged.

Only now was Curt noticing that Riker and Tiffany were matching. Tiffany was wearing a light blue dress dress, and Riker's shirt was in a similar color. He also had on a black tie and black pants. And god, did he look excited.

Adam and Sophie were kind of doing a matching thing, too. Sophie was wearing a glittery pink dress, and Adam was wearing a black dress shirt with a pink tie. Finn had on a navy blue dress shirt with brown pants, and he'd opted not to wear a tie. Rydel was wearing a white dress with pink flowers on it.

"I have to say, you kids all clean up nicely," Stormie said.

"Thanks, mom," Riker said as Tiffany giggled.

"If you want, I can take Curt in my car," Finn's mom said.

"That would be great," Curt's mom said. "Curt, you have fun. Don't go too crazy. I expect to hear all about it when you get home."

"Okay," Curt said.

"Love you," she said. She gave Curt a quick kiss on the forehead, and then turned around to walk back to the car. Curt followed Finn, Adam, and Sophie to the O'Brien's car.

Finn's mom drove a small Toyota. Curt sat in the backseat with Adam and Sophie, and Finn rode shotgun. The car ride from Qing Palace to Littleton High wasn't too long. Curt had been expecting it to be as long as the bus ride. However, they didn't have to go in and out of neighborhoods to pick kids up, nor did they have to deal with morning rush hour traffic, so it probably shouldn't have been so surprising.

"Here we are," Mrs. O'Brien said.

"Thanks, mom," Finn said.

"No problem. You kids have fun, now!" she said.

Curt was on the side of the car that was closest to the sidewalk, so he opened his door and got out. Adam and Sophie slid out behind him.

"I'll be here to pick you guys up at eleven, okay?" Finn's mom said to him as he got out of the car.

"Alright," Finn said.

"See you guys later," she said. After Finn closed his door, she started to drive away.

"Let's go!" Finn said.

"Don't you think that we should wait for Riker and the rest of them?" Adam said.

"Yeah, we probably should," Sophie said.

They walked inside the main doors of the school, and they waited. A couple of minutes later, Riker, Tiffany, and Rydel arrived. Finn led them down to the gym, where the dance was being held. A couple of kids from the dance committee were sitting behind a table outside of the gym. Off to the left was a backdrop where you could get your picture taken with your date (if you had one).

They pulled out their tickets and handed them to the kids behind the counter. Then, they walked inside the gym.

"You didn't want to get our picture taken, did you?" Riker asked. Tiffany shook her head.

"Wow," Sophie said, looking at all of the decorations.

"Yeah, they really did well," Finn said.

The walls had cutouts of black paper that was supposed to look like the silhouette of a city skyline. Streamers were hanging from the walls. But somehow, it all worked. The coolest decoration by far was the marquee they had in the back. Really all they had done was cut out a big sheet of black paper, put a smaller piece of white paper inside of it, and put a string of white Christmas lights along the black edges of the paper, but it really did look cool. The marquee read "Littleton High School Presents: Homecoming 2008".

Adam and Sophie wasted no time in getting out onto the dance floor. Finn was right behind them. After a couple of minutes, Riker and Tiffany were out there too. Rydel seemed to have disappeared, which left Curt all by himself. Curt decided to wander over to the snack table. He was still full from dinner, but at least going over there gave him something to do. He wasn't exactly ready to jump in on the dancing quite yet.

The snack table had snacks that were supposed to go along with the dance's New York City theme. Curt thought it was cute. He didn't take any food, but he did get a glass of punch. It was really warm in the gym, and Curt was already thirsty.

"Don't worry, dude, the punch isn't spiked," a kid said. Curt turned to see two tall boys standing next to him. It took Curt a second to realize that one of them had talked to him.

"At least not yet," the other boy said. This caused both of them to burst into laughter.

"No," the first boy said. "Hawkeye is guarding the table. If anyone planned on spiking the punch, they would have forgotten it the second they walked in the door."

"Who's Hawkeye?" Curt asked. He felt kind of dumb for asking, but he was still pretty new to the school. What could he do?

"That woman right there," the first boy said, pointing out a middle-aged woman who stood at the other end of the table. "That's Mrs. Williamson. We call her Hawkeye because nothing can get past her."

"So, drink all of the punch you want. Nothing's going to happen to it tonight," the other boy said. The two boys laughed again. Curt didn't really know what to say, so instead he nodded and casually walked away with his punch.

"I think we scared him away," the first boy said behind him.

Curt leaned up against the wall and sipped his punch. He watched everyone out on the dance floor, contemplating whether or not he wanted to go out and join him. Yep, he was certainly glad that he let Finn talk him into coming to the dance. He was certainly having the time of his life.

"Curt!" someone said. Curt looked to see Finn coming his way.

"Hi," Curt said when Finn had finally reached him.

"Why are you hiding out back here?" Finn asked.

"I don't know," Curt said.

"Well come on out, the next song's about to start," Finn said. The song that was playing ended, and then a slow love song began to play.

"Maybe we should wait for the next one," Curt said.

"That sounds like a good idea," Finn said. "Oh, wait, I know this song! This is my jam!"

Curt couldn't help but laugh. Finn started singing along with the song, and Curt scanned the floor, looking at all of the kids who were dancing. Almost instantly, he spotted Sophie and Adam. After a few more seconds, he saw Tiffany and Riker.

Curt couldn't get over how excited Riker looked. Riker looked like he was the happiest that he'd ever been. And then, beyond that, he looked at Tiffany like she was the greatest thing in the world. But after a few seconds, Curt started to feel jealous. The scary thing was, though, that he wasn't jealous of Riker. He was jealous of Tiffany. He wished that he could be in Tiffany's place, having Riker look at him like that. It was dumb, though.

But then he remembered the story about Adam and Riker and the supposed kiss. Adam had said that it was just a stupid rumor started by Marissa, but Marissa had claimed that it was true. It was pretty clear that Marissa couldn't be trusted. But what if she hadn't been lying? What if Riker and Adam really had kissed?

It didn't matter. At the end of the day, Riker was still head-over-heels for Tiffany, and Curt was still stupid. But why was he so jealous of Tiffany? Did he like Riker? Was that what was going on? No. It couldn't be. It was probably just that he wanted to be loved like that. Great, now he was getting all mushy with himself.

There were some tough-looking jocks around. Maybe he could go pick a fight with one of them. Then, he'd get beat up, and that would snap him out of it. Or better yet, maybe he'd lose consciousness, and then he'd wake up in the hospital with no recollection of what had happened. Yeah, that seemed like the safest bet.

The thoughts that were ricocheting around his head and the hot, stuffy air of the gym were starting to make him feel lightheaded.

"I'm going to go sit down," Curt said to Finn. He walked over to the bleachers and sat down. After the slow song ended, Finn joined him on the bleachers. After the next couple of songs, Finn went back out onto the dance floor, and once again, Curt was alone. That was when he spotted Rydel sitting on the bleachers.

Curt stood up and walked over to her.

"Hey," he said.

"Hi," she said.

"Having fun?" Curt asked.

"Not really," she said. "What about you? Are you having any fun?"

"No," Curt said.

"This really stinks," Rydel said.

"Tell me about it," Curt said.

"I mean, first my crush asks out another girl, then my best friend ditches me just because some boy said no, then I have to tag along with my brother, just to see my crush dancing with the girl he brought," Rydel said.

"Part of it's my fault," Curt said.

"What do you mean?" Rydel said.

"I'm the boy that Marissa asked to the dance," Curt said.

"Why'd you say no?" Rydel asked.

"Well, I just don't feel that way back about her," Curt said. "I was flattered that she asked me, but I just…well, you get what I mean."

"You guys could've still had fun," Rydel said. "I mean, Riker asked a girl he didn't like, and he's having fun."

"Riker doesn't like Tiffany?" Curt asked.

"Well, he likes her, he just doesn't _like_ like her," Rydel said.

Curt was about to ask why he'd asked Tiffany to the dance if he didn't like her that way, but then he decided against it. It wasn't really any of his business.

"I guess that makes sense," Curt said, even though it didn't really.

"Still, you and Marissa still could've had fun," Rydel said.

"I don't think so," Curt said. "After she asked me and I'd already said no, I heard about some of the mean things that she's done to people, and now I just don't really have any respect for her."

"Really?" Rydel said.

"Yeah," Curt said.

"Is that why Riker hates her so much?" Rydel said. "Did she do something mean to him?"

"Yeah," Curt said.

"What'd she do?" Rydel asked.

"I would tell you, but that's not really my job. That's for Riker to tell you if he wants to," Curt said. "But, I'm really sorry for ruining your night."

"It's not your fault," Rydel said. "It's Marissa and Brandon King's fault."

"Well, if I had said yes, then Marissa would be here with you right now," Curt said.

"You had some good reasons for saying no," Rydel said, shrugging. "And please don't tell Riker that it was Brandon King who broke my heart. I don't think he was kidding when he said that he'd beat him up. I don't want Riker to get pummeled."

Curt couldn't help but laugh.

"Don't worry. My lips are sealed," Curt said.

"How are you all doing tonight?" the deejay said. The crowd cheered back to him. "I'm about to spin another slow one, so gentlemen, grab your honeybunny and bring her on down."

"That deejay is kind of annoying," Rydel said.

"No kidding," Curt said. When the song started to play, Curt turned to Rydel. "Do you want to dance with me? Since I basically ruined your night, it's the least I can do."

"If I say yes, will you stop saying that you ruined my night?" Rydel asked.

"Sure," Curt said.

"Then, yes," Rydel said.

Curt pulled her out onto the dance floor, and danced with her for the song. The fact that he was dancing with Riker's sister was awkward, and the fact that they really didn't know each other made it even more awkward, but it was the least he could do for her.

"Hey, make sure you rub this in Marissa's face on Monday, okay?" Curt said when the song ended. Rydel smiled and nodded. Then, she noticed some of her other friends and went off to hang out with them.

The rest of the dance dragged on. Finn managed to talk Curt into going out onto the dance floor, and Curt spent a while goofing off with Finn. Then, another slow song came on and they retreated back to the bleachers. Curt watched as Riker and Tiffany danced together. About halfway through the song, Tiffany reached up and went in for a kiss. The jealous feelings came rushing back as Riker started to lean in. But then, Riker jumped back and rushed away from Tiffany.

"Huh, that's weird," Finn said as the two boys watched Riker walk away. After a couple of songs, Riker came back, and acted as though nothing had ever happened.

Finally, the dance ended. Stormie and Finn's mom were waiting near the doors. It turned out that Finn lived near Tiffany, so Stormie and Finn's mom had decided that Curt and Tiffany would switch cars. It only made sense. The group said their goodbyes, and then Curt left with Riker and Rydel.

About half an hour later, Stormie was pulling into Curt's driveway.

"Thanks for taking me home," Curt said.

"No problem," Stormie said.

"Bye, Curt!" Rydel said.

"See you on Monday," Riker said.

"Bye guys," Curt said. He got out of the car and closed the door behind him. They all waved at him as he walked towards his door.

Part of him wasn't ready to walk inside. He knew that his mom was going to want to know how the dance went, but truth be told, Curt wasn't sure. It wouldn't be fair to say that the dance was good, but it wasn't necessarily fair to say that it was bad, either.

He just hoped that he'd be able to straighten all of this stuff out soon.

* * *

**That's it for Chapter 8! I hope that you enjoyed it! Monday I'll be back in school, but I hope to get another chapter or two done before then.**

**As today is Thanksgiving here in America, I just want to say that I'm thankful for all of you guys. Your reviews, follows, favorites, and support mean the world to me.**

**Like I said before, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope to return soon with the next one. **

**Until next time! xoxoxo**


	10. Chapter 9

**A/N: Hey, guys! I'm finally back! Sorry I've been MIA for so long. After the last chapter, I got a really bad case of writer's block. But finally, I was able to get back on track and start writing again. So now, I'm back.**

**In this chapter, Curt and Adam translate a passage from Spanish to English. My Spanish is a bit rusty because I haven't spoken a lot of Spanish since my Spanish class ended last Spring (I can't take it this year). I wrote the entire passage that they translate myself. I didn't use a translator, I only used my Spanish-English dictionary to look up a few words I didn't remember. Other than that, it was only my brain. I DO realize that the grammar is not going to be 100% and I'm sorry for that. I just wanted to make you guys aware of that.**

**I do not own, nor am I affiliated with Curt Mega or the Lynch family. However, I do own all of the original characters that appear here (Finn O'Brien, Adam Martella, Sophie Woods, etc.) The events that take place in this story are entirely fictional, and I do not mean any harm to Curt Mega or the Lynch family through the writing of this story.**

**Sorry I kept you guys waiting so long. Without further ado, here is the next chapter!**

* * *

Curt felt like he was on top of the world.

Everything just seemed to be going right. On the way into school, the bus ride with Riker was awkward. Riker hadn't seen him dancing with Rydel, but he'd certainly heard about it. Curt made it clear that there was nothing going on between them, and luckily, Riker believed him. After that had been cleared up, Curt asked how things had gone with Tiffany. Things had gone well, or so Riker said. Curt hadn't forgotten about the almost-kiss that Riker and Tiffany had-but before she could, Riker had run away. Curt was still confused about that, but he knew that it was none of his business.

After the awkward bus ride, things got better quickly. In language arts, they were going to be reading _To Kill a Mockingbird_, which Curt was actually pretty excited about. Biology was okay, but math had been fantastic.

"I graded your tests from last week," Mr. Schaefer said. "You're welcome."

The class didn't say anything, except for one kid named Jimmy, who raised his hand.

"Yes, Jimmy?" Mr. Schaefer said.

"Who got the highest score?" Jimmy said.

"Excellent question," Mr. Schaefer said. "Should I tell you?"

"Yes!" several kids said.

"Curt-not-Curtis," Mr. Schaefer said, gesturing to Curt. Everyone in the classroom looked over at Curt.

"Me?" Curt said, shocked.

"Yes, sir," Mr. Schaefer said.

Curt was amazed. He'd had a good feeling about the test after he took it, but he didn't think he'd done that well on the test.

"Wow," Curt said. It was all he could think to say,

"You earned it, Curt-not-Curtis," Mr. Schaefer said.

Curt turned his head to see a brunette girl staring at him.

"So close, Lauren," Mr. Schaefer continued. "2% more and you would have tied with Curt-not-Curtis."

Lauren looked over at him again, and then returned her attention to Mr. Schaefer. Mr. Schaefer grabbed the stack of tests and passed them out quickly, placing them face-down on the student's desks. One-by-one, the students turned over their tests. Some cheered, some groaned. Others just shrugged. Towards the end of the pile, Curt got his test back. At the top of the test, 98% was written and circled in red ink. Curt couldn't help but smile.

That good feeling lasted into civics, when Curt and Riker presented their projects. The whole presentation went off without a hitch. Riker did most of the talking. It was funny; Curt never would have predicted that Riker would be so good at public speaking, especially with how shy he had been when they had first met. But no, Riker was cool, calm, and collected, speaking as though Azroth had been the only thing he'd ever known. Curt had interjected at parts, but he did nowhere near as good a job as Riker. But even then, Curt was proud of their presentation. Hell, he was proud of their entire project. He was pleased with how the report had turned out, and Riker had done an amazing job on the map. They were going to do well, Curt could tell.

The rest of Monday had passed by uneventfully, and now it was Tuesday. Curt was still riding high. That morning, he and Riker hadn't said much on the bus ride. In Civics, Mrs. Butler passed back their rubrics. Curt and Riker had gotten an A on the project.

"Riker! Look!" Curt said, practically shoving the rubric in Riker's face.

"Cool," Riker said, scanning the rubric. He didn't seem adequately excited. In fact, he seemed really sad.

As soon as the bell rang, Riker disappeared. He didn't show up to lunch.

"Where's Riker?" Curt asked when he sat down.

"I don't know," Finn said, shrugging.

"Maybe he's just running late," Sophie said.

Curt hoped that was the case. In the meantime, he talked with Finn, Sophie, and Adam.

"What'd you and Riker get on your project?" Finn asked.

"An A," Curt said.

"We also got an A," Finn said.

"Good to know your suffering was worth it," Adam said.

"Yeah," Finn said.

"How is the little she-devil these days? Has she been spreading any gay rumors lately?" Adam said.

"No, but she has developed a creepy crush on Mr. Schaefer," Finn said.

"Ew," Sophie said.

"Who's developed a creepy crush on me?" Mr. Schaefer said from behind them. Finn put his head down on the table, Sophie pretended not to exist for a few moments, and Adam just began to laugh. Curt just sat there.

"Just this girl we know," Adam said.

"I see," Mr. Schaefer said. "And why is this so gross, Miss Woods?"

"It's not gross, it's just creepy," Sophie said. "You're married and you have a kid Finn's age."

"Valid point," Mr. Schaefer said.

"Wait, Ryan is Finn's age?" Adam said, scratching his head.

"I think we've covered that, Adam," Finn said.

"Yeah, he's growing up," Mr. Schaefer said.

"I met him when he was a shy little thirteen year old," Adam said.

"If it's any consolation, Adam, he's still shy," Mr. Schaefer said.

"Aw," Sophie said. "How is Ryan?"

"He's doing well. His soccer season's almost over, and he's bummed about that, but he's doing really well. He really is," Mr. Schaefer said.

"That's good," Sophie said.

Then, two boys began fighting at a nearby table. It started out as a yelling match, but it quickly evolved into a full-on fistfight. Mr. Schaefer looked at the scene and sighed to himself.

"I have to go," Mr. Schaefer said. "Duty calls. Miss Woods, Finn, Adam, Curt-not-Curtis; it was a pleasure."

Then Mr. Schaefer ran over to the nearby table. He pushed himself in between the two fighting boys and pushed them apart.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" he yelled until the boys calmed down. Finally, the boys stopped punching each other and resorted to glaring at each other. "What is going on here?"

Without responding to Mr. Schaefer, one of the boys lunged at the other one again. Mr. Schaefer pulled them apart a second time and dragged them out of the cafeteria. The cafeteria was so noisy that most of the cafeteria was oblivious to whatever had just happened.

"Well, that wasn't awkward," Curt said.

"What? Our conversation with Mr. S or the fight?" Finn said.

"Both, I think," Curt said.

"You've got to watch out for that man. I swear he's part ninja," Sophie said.

Curt nodded.

"You okay, Curt?" Adam said.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Curt said.

"You seem glum," Adam said.

"I'm not glum," Curt said. "I'm just worried about Riker, that's all."

"Maybe he got tied up somewhere," Finn said.

"Maybe," Curt said. Although, he didn't think so. They were about a quarter of the way through the lunch period: too much time had passed to consider him as just being "late". Two minutes was late. Not this long.

"Or maybe he's just eating with Tiffany today," Sophie said.

Curt hadn't thought of that. He scanned the lunch room. Finally, he saw Tiffany sitting at her table, but Riker wasn't there.

"He'll turn up soon. He always does," Adam said. "I mean, it isn't that hard for him to hide. He kind of stands out."

It certainly felt strange without Riker at the table. Although Riker never talked much during their lunchtime conversations, his absence was definitely noticeable; at least to Curt. The lunch period passed by, and before Curt knew it, he and Adam were back in the library. They were currently working on the future tense in their Spanish class, and as usual, their teacher was doing a shoddy job of explaining it.

"So, what's the homework?" Adam said.

"We were given a story and we have to translate it," Curt said.

"Ugh," Adam said. "Alright. Go grab that one Spanish handbook and a Spanish-English dictionary, please."

Curt jumped up and ran back to the Spanish materials section of their library. Curt grabbed the handbook and one of the dog-eared Spanish-English dictionaries and started back towards his Adam's table.

"Curt," someone said from behind him.

Curt froze. He'd know that voice from anywhere.

"Riker," Curt said. Curt turned around to see Riker, hiding within the stacks of books. Curt wondered if he'd been here since Civics. The rims of Riker's eyes were red, making it obvious that he had been crying.

"What's wrong?" Curt said.

"Tiffany broke up with me," Riker said.

"Oh," Curt said. Riker's strange behavior in Civics and his absence from lunch were suddenly starting to make a lot of sense. Riker nodded.

"I'm sorry, Riker. That really sucks," Curt said.

"Yeah, yeah it does," Riker said. His voice was starting to sound gravelly, like he was going to cry again.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" Curt asked. Riker shook his head.

"I don't think so. Thanks for trying, though," Riker said.

Curt held his arms open, offering a hug to Riker if he wanted one. Riker didn't seem to notice, so Curt put his arms down.

"No problem," Curt said. "I'm really sorry."

"It's okay," Riker said. "I should let you get back to your homework. I'm sure Adam needs you."

"Yeah," Curt said. As much as he wanted to stay here with Riker, he needed to get back to Adam.

"Bye," Riker said.

"Bye," Curt said, before starting to turn around. He started to walk back to Adam, but then something stopped him. "Riker, wait."

Riker stopped in his tracks and turned around, giving Curt a confused look. Curt ran up and threw his arms around Riker. At first, Riker seemed surprised, but then he returned Curt's hug. After a few seconds, Riker pulled away.

"You really need to get back to Adam," Riker said.

"Yeah, I guess so," Curt said.

"Thanks," Riker said. "I needed that."

"No problem," Curt said. Then he and Riker parted ways.

"Took you long enough," Adam said when Curt returned to the table.

"Sorry, I ran into Riker," Curt said.

"Oh," Adam said. "Why was he MIA from lunch?"

"Tiffany broke up with him," Curt said.

"That's too bad," Adam said. "Now, I see that you really care about Riker, and I really appreciate that, but Spanish is slightly more important than his relationship woes."

"Okay. Let's get started," Curt said.

The two boys pulled out their packets and read the story that they were supposed to translate.

_Hay una chica que se llama Ana. Este fin de semana, Ana irá a la cine con su novio, Fred. Ellos llegarán al cine a las tres de la tarde. Fred comprará los boletos para la película. Luego, Ana y Fred caminarán a el soporte de la concesion. Fred comprará las palomitas, dulces, y refrescos. Cundo los dos tienen la comida, ellos irán a el teatro y mirarán por asientos. Cuando ellos encuentra asientos, los dos sentarán, y ellos verán la película. Despues de la película, Ana y Fred irán a un restaurante. Ana comerá cena con Fred, y luego, Fred caminará con Ana a la casa de Ana. Fred besará Ana, y dice"Adios" a Ana. Estará un dia perfecta._

Using the handbook and the Spanish-English dictionary, they worked on translating the passage. Between the two of them, they managed to get it translated.

"There is a girl whose name is Ana. This weekend, Ana will go to the movies with her boyfriend, Fred. They will arrive at the movies at three in the afternoon. Fred will buy the tickets for the film. Then, Ana and Fred will walk to the concession stand. Fred will by the popcorn, candy, and sodas. Then, when the two have the food, they will go to the theater and look for seats. When they find seats, the two will sit, and they will see the film. After the film, Ana and Fred will go to a restaurant. Ana will eat dinner with Fred, and then, Fred will walk with Ana to Ana's house. Fred will kiss Ana, and say goodbye. It will be a perfect day," Curt said, reading his and Adam's translation.

"You know, normally people do dinner and _then_ the movie," Adam said.

Curt started laughing.

"So, does this sound okay?" Curt said.

"I really don't care, as long as we have something to turn in," Adam said.

Then, the bell rang, and Adam and Curt headed off to Spanish. Finally, after what felt like a century, the bell signifying the end of the day rang. Curt practically bolted from his last class and to his locker.

"Curt! Curt!" he heard someone yelling after him. He turned to see Finn running towards him.

"What?" Curt said as Finn caught up to him.

"What are you doing this weekend?" Finn asked.

"I don't know. I don't really have anything planned," Curt said.

"Good," Finn said. "I was going to ask if you wanted to go ice skating with us on Saturday."

"Okay," Curt said. He'd never been ice skating before, and he wasn't sure if he'd enjoy it, but it certainly beat sitting at home all weekend.

"So you'll come?" Finn said. Curt nodded. "Excellent. Cool. That's all I needed."

"Okay," Curt said. Curt finally reached his locker and opened it up, immediately putting on his jacket. Then, he shoved the folders and notebooks he needed for tonight into his backpack, and tossed his pencil case in there.

Curt walked out of the front doors of the school to the line of buses waiting outside. He found his bus, and then got on. Riker was already in their seat, staring forlornly out the window.

"Hey," Curt said.

"Hi," Riker replied.

The bus ride was silent and awkward. Riker just stared out the window. It was a lot like Curt's first few days at Littleton High, except for the fact that Riker wasn't even listening to his iPod. He was just staring out the window, not saying anything. Curt left Riker alone, knowing that if Riker wanted to talk to Curt about it, he would.

Finally, towards the end of the bus ride, Riker said something.

"I really wanted it to work out between me and Tiffany," Riker said.

"I know," Curt said. It was all Curt could think to say.

"No, I _needed_ it to work out between us," Riker said quietly, speaking to himself.

This made Curt curious, but he didn't push it. Again, if Riker wanted to talk about it, he would. Finally, the bus pulled into his neighborhood. Once they'd gotten off the bus, Riker walked away, hanging his head as he did.

* * *

**That's that. I know, not my best work, but I hope you guys liked it anyways.**

**Once again, I'm sorry about how long it took to get this one up. I can't guarantee that I won't get writer's block again, however, I do know what I did to push myself into writer's block, and I'm taking measures that will hopefully keep everything sailing smoothly. Writing can be really unpredictable at times. Hopefully if I do end up getting writer's block again, I'll be able to fix it quickly and move on.**

**Thank you to all of you who sent me words of encouragement while I had writer's block. It definitely kept my spirits alive, and made me determined to fix the problem as soon as I could. **

**The support you guys have shown for me through the writing of this fic has been outstanding. It truly means a lot to me.**

**Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I plan to be back soon with the next one. It's going to be chock-full with Rikurt fluffiness, so I hope you guys stick around.**

**Love you guys :) xoxo**


	11. Chapter 10

**Hey guys! Sorry I've been gone! But I'm finally back with Chapter 10! As promised, there are some fluffy Rikurt moments in here. This isn't my best chapter, but I hope you all enjoy it regardless. **

**I do not own, nor am I affiliated with Curt Mega or the Lynch family. However, I do own all of the original characters that appear here (Finn O'Brien, Sophie Woods, Adam Martella, etc.) The events that take place within this story are entirely fictional, and I do not mean any harm to Curt Mega or the Lynch family through the writing of this story.**

* * *

"You don't have a pair of skates, do you?" Finn asked. Curt shook his head. Ice skating wasn't exactly a common activity in Texas, so Curt had never needed a pair of ice skates.

"Alright, go rent your skates. We'll be waiting for you at that bench over there," Finn said, gesturing to a bench. Sophie and Riker were already sitting there, lacing up their skates. Riker's siblings were also here. They were sitting at another bench and getting their skates on. Adam wasn't there yet, but he was going to be there soon. He was supposedly going to be bringing his boyfriend today, whom Curt was excited to meet.

Curt walked over to the rental counter. A middle-aged man with greasy hair was standing behind the counter. He was wearing a mustard-yellow polo shirt that identified him as an employee of the rink.

"What size do you need?" he said before Curt could say anything.

"Eleven," Curt said.

The man walked over and grabbed a pair of black-and-red skates. The leather towards the top of the skates was fraying, and the toes of the skates had white scuff marks on them. On the back heels, the number 11 was written in silver sharpie.

"They've seen some tough love, but they'll do," the man said. "Here for the open skate?" Curt nodded. "Your total comes out to seven dollars."

Curt pulled a ten-dollar bill out of his pocket and handed it to the man. The man pressed a few buttons on the cash register, opened it, and slid the bill inside. He pulled out three ones and handed them to Curt, along with the skates. Curt put the bills back into his pocket, and then took the skates. He made his way over to the bench where Sophie, Riker, and Finn were gathered.

"Hey, Curt," Sophie said.

"Hi," Curt said.

"Is this your first time skating?" Sophie asked. Curt nodded.

"Don't worry," Finn said. "You'll be fine."

Curt hoped that Finn was right.

"Need help lacing up your skates?" Riker asked.

"No, I think I'm good," Curt said. Curt sat down on the bench and took off his shoes. He slid his feet into the skates. Then he picked up the laces and tried to figure out how to tie them. I turned out to be a little more difficult than Curt thought. After a few failed attempts, Riker stepped in to help him.

"You tie them like this," Riker said. Curt watched as Riker pulled the laces snugly. When Riker reached his ankle, he picked up the laces and crisscrossed them until he made it to the top of the skate, where he pulled them tight and secured the skate with a knot.

"It's a good thing you stepped in," Curt said as Riker started on the second skate. "I never would have thought to do that."

Riker chuckled a little and continued working on Curt's second skate.

"Stand up," Riker said when he finished the second skate. Curt stood up from the bench, wobbling a little as he did.

"How do they feel?" Riker asked. "Are they tight enough?"

"They're perfect," Curt said. Riker was obviously very experienced with tying skates, because Curt wasn't lying when he'd said they were perfect. They weren't too tight, nor were they too loose. They were just right.

"Good. I'm glad," Riker said.

"Oh, look. Adam and Chad are here," Sophie said.

Curt looked over to see Adam making his way towards them with a tall, light brown-haired boy.

"Hi, Chad!" Sophie said, running up and throwing her arms around Chad.

"Whoa!" Chad said when Sophie connected with him. He gingerly returned Sophie's hug.

"How have you have been?" Sophie said, taking a step back.

"I've been doing alright," Chad said, chuckling a little.

"Tell them," Adam said.

"About what?" Chad said.

"The musical," Adam said.

"Oh," Chad said. "This year, we did Hairspray. I was Link."

Chad shrugged as if it was no big deal.

"I went to see him. He was great," Adam said.

"Chad lives in Englewood," Finn said to Curt. "It's about ten minutes from here."

Curt nodded.

"No word on your guy's musical yet?" Chad said. Everyone shook their heads.

"Soon," Finn said. "She always tells us right before we get off for Thanksgiving."

"Ah," Chad said. "Well, let me know as soon as you find out what it is. I want to come see you guys."

"So, Chad, there's someone I want you to meet," Adam said. Adam took Chad's hand and led him over to Curt. "Chad, this is my friend Curt, Curt this my boyfriend Chad."

"Nice to meet you," Chad said, reaching out to shake Curt's hand. Curt returned the handshake.

"You too," Curt said.

"So, Adam tells me you're new to Colorado," Chad said.

"Relatively," Curt said. "I moved here about a month ago."

"Wow," Chad said.

"Yeah," Curt said.

"Where you from?" Chad asked.

"Arlington, Texas," Curt said.

"Oh, cool," Chad said. "I've been to Dallas a few times. It's nice there."

"Yeah," Curt said. As much as he was starting to love Colorado, he still missed Texas.

"It's his first time skating," Finn said.

"Really?" Chad said, arching an eyebrow in surprise. "I mean, I guess it shouldn't be that big of a surprise. You just told me that you're from Texas. You're gonna have fun out there. I promise."

Curt smiled at Chad. Then, the greasy man from behind the counter walked over to the rink.

"Let's get our skaters on," Adam said.

Curt moved out of the way, and so did Finn. Adam and Chad sat down and laced up their skates. By the time the greasy man had opened up the door to the rink, Adam and Chad were ready. The group walked over to the open door and stepped onto the ice.

Weightless. That was the only way to describe it. Walking from the bench to the ice had been clunky and difficult. But the second Curt took his first steps on the ice, he felt weightless.

Pop music began to play from the overhead speakers. The rest of the group took right off, skating away, but Curt took it really slow. First, he had to figure out how to move himself on the ice.

A few minutes later, he figured out what he was doing. Kind of. He could propel himself forward, but he couldn't do it very fast. There was no traction on the ice. He waddled, almost like a penguin; a weightless penguin.

Soon, Riker's siblings joined them on the ice. Like Adam, Chad, Finn, Sophie, and Riker, they also zipped around the wink with ease. They had quite a few years on Curt, though.

After a little bit, Curt started pushing himself a little harder, trying to get himself to go a little bit faster. He was so wrapped up in what he was doing that he almost missed Chad yelling behind him.

"Adam! Watch it!" Chad yelled.

"I don't think I can stop!" Adam yelled back. "Holy crap! Curt!"

Then, Adam plowed into Curt's backside, knocking them both over. Curt landed awkwardly on his chest and chin.

"Ouch," Curt said.

"I'm so sorry," Adam said.

"It's fine," Curt said.

"On the Brightside, you broke my fall," Adam said.

Adam laughed, but Curt didn't think it was very funny.

Chad helped Adam up, and then went to help Curt up, but Riker stopped him.

"I've got it," Riker said.

Riker held out his hand. Curt grabbed it, and Riker slowly helped him to his feet.

"You okay?" Riker said. "You took quite the fall there."

"I'm okay," Curt said. "It didn't tickle though."

"Well, maybe you wouldn't have fallen if someone had better control of themselves," Riker said, glaring over at Adam.

"Hey! Don't blame me!" Adam said.

"You did knock him over," Chad said.

"I apologized!" Adam said.

"And I accepted it," Curt said. "Besides, it's my first time skating. I was bound to fall at some point."

Riker shrugged.

"I'm really sorry about that," Adam said. "Thanks for breaking my fall, Curt."

"No problem," Curt said. "And it's fine."

Adam and Chad skated onward, leaving Riker and Curt to themselves.

"Do you want me to help you skate?" Riker asked.

"Um, sure," Curt said.

"Okay," Riker said. "Stay right there."

Riker skated around Curt, so that he was to Curt's left. He started to loop his arm behind Curt's but then changed his mind, reaching down and grabbing Curt's hand.

"Is that okay?" Riker asked.

"Yeah, it's okay," Curt said, nodding.

"Here we go," Riker said. Riker started slow, but within a few minutes, they were picking up speed. As their speed increased, Curt started to grow nervous and hesitant.

"Don't worry, I won't let you fall," Riker said.

"Okay," Curt said. He took a deep breath and let Riker guide him, taking it all in: the blur of the bleachers as they zoomed past, the icy air running through his hair and brushing past his face, and Riker's tight grip on him, which wouldn't let him fall.

"How are you?" Curt asked Riker. On Tuesday, Tiffany had broken up with Riker. Even though their relationship hadn't lasted for very long, Riker had been devastated when they broke up. He'd spent Tuesday hiding in the library. Wednesday, he stopped hiding, but he still sulked. On Thursday and Friday, he'd seemed to be moving on. Today, however, he seemed to be feeling much better.

"You know what? I'm doing a lot better," Riker said.

"That's good. I'm glad," Curt said.

They rounded around the edge of the ice rink. Riker looked back at Curt.

"So, having fun?" Riker asked, using his spare hand to gesture to the rink.

"Yeah," Curt said, smiling.

"Riker! Curt! Watch out!" someone yelled. The boys looked up to see one of Riker's brothers barreling towards them. But it was already too late. Whoever it was plowed into Riker and Curt, knocking all three of them over. Curt narrowly managed to avoid hitting his head on the ice.

Curt heard scraping on the ice as Riker sat up. Their hands were still connected.

"Rocky!" Riker said, groaning.

"I'm sorry," Rocky said. "I couldn't stop."

"You could've swerved around us," Riker said.

"I couldn't steer myself, either," Rocky said. "Maybe if you and Curt hadn't been so busy making eyes at each other, this could have been avoided."

"We were not making eyes at each other!" Riker said.

"Yes, you were!" Rocky said.

"Guys, stop!" Curt said, sitting up. "It was everyone's fault. Riker and I should have been paying more attention, and Rocky shouldn't have been going so fast. Now, let's stop fighting and get up."

Riker and Rocky nodded, and then pulled themselves up. Once Riker had gotten up, he helped Curt back up. Riker took his hand again, and then they started again. They made it through the rest of the open skate without any more crashes or falls.

The open skate ended after three hours. Finn explained that normally, it was a bit longer, but a high school was using the rink for hockey tryouts today, so they needed time to Zamboni the ice before the kids arrived. After another employee in a mustard-colored polo shirt ushered them all off the ice, the went back over to the benches and unlaced their skates. Riker unlaced Curt's for him before unlacing his own.

After Riker unlaced Curt's skates, Curt pulled them off his feet and put his shoes back on. He stood up and walked over to the rental counter with the skates. After three hours spent ice skating, it felt strange to be off the ice. All of that weightlessness had disappeared, and gravity seemed to be in full effect once again.

Curt set the skates back down on the counter and the greasy man took them.

"Thank you," Curt said.

"No problem, kid," the man said.

Curt walked back over to the benches and waited for everyone else to get their skates off. Once everyone else was ready, they walked out of the ice rink and into the lobby.

"We should get some hot chocolate," Finn said.

"Yeah," Sophie said.

They all got in line at the concession stand. One-by-one, they ordered their hot chocolate.

The hot chocolate cost two dollars for a small Styrofoam cup filled with the cheap cocoa that is bought in bulk. It wasn't the best hot chocolate in the world, but it wasn't the worst either. It just tasted cheap. But even then, it was a nice end to their day of skating. Once they had their hot chocolate, they sat down at the tables in the lobby. Finn and Chad started talking about _Hairspray_, and everyone else paid attention.

"Want some popcorn?" Riker asked Curt. Curt nodded and took a handful. The popcorn was almost too salty to be good. He washed it down with a sip of cocoa.

"Riker, can you come here a minute?" Stormie asked from a nearby table. Riker stood up and walked over to his mom. Once he was gone, Chad turned to Curt.

"How long have you and Riker been together?" Chad asked.

"Uh, we're not together," Curt said, chuckling a little.

"Really? That's not what it looked like out there today," Chad said.

"He was helping me skate," Curt said.

"I'm not talking about the hand-holding. I was talking about the way you guys were looking at each other," Chad said. Curt rolled his eyes.

"We're not together. I promise," Curt said.

"Okay, then. If you say so," Chad said, shaking his head and taking a sip of hot chocolate. Adam reached over and gave Chad a peck on the cheek.

"No PDA!" Finn said, playfully swatting at Adam.

"What's going on here?" Riker said, sitting back down.

"Nothing," Curt said. "Absolutely nothing."

"Okay, then," Riker said. "My mom wants me to tell you that we're giving you a ride home."

"Okay," Curt said. "Thanks."

The group continued to talk until it was time for them to be getting home. Curt followed Riker and his family out to their minivan.

"Did you have fun today?" Riker asked.

"Yeah. I had a great time," Curt said.

"Good," Riker said.

"Thank you for everything, Riker. You made my first time skating a lot of fun," Curt said.

"Yeah, when you weren't being run over by rambunctious teenagers," Riker said, causing both of the boys to laugh.

* * *

**Well, that's that for this chapter. Hopefully I'll be back soon with Chapter 11. **

**Thank you guys for your reviews, follows, and favorites. Your support means the world to me. **

**Until next time! xoxo**


	12. From the Mixed-Up Heart of Riker A Lynch

**A/N: Hi, guys. I'm back. Lately, I've had a few requests for a Riker chapter. Now, this initially was a problem, because Just Under the Upper Hand is Curt's story. But at the same time, I there's a lot going on with Riker, and so I feel like it would be beneficial for you guys to know what's up with Riker before we continue. **

**I don't consider this an official chapter, more like an extra. However, it does give you Riker's perspective on everything that's happened so far. My first Rikurt fanfiction was written from Riker's point-of-view, so it was kind of nice to be back.**

**I wrote half of this while sitting in a bathtub in a hotel room bathroom at five in the morning. Surprisingly, that half is the better half. So, it's not my best writing, but I hope you enjoy it anyways.**

* * *

Riker leaned his head against the window of the van, watching as Curt walked up his driveway. _Don't be so creepy, _Riker told himself. But he couldn't bring himself to look away. Curt walked up his steps and into his house, leaving Riker feeling slightly crushed. He was hoping that Curt would turn around and wave at him one more time. But, of course, he didn't.

Once Curt was safely inside his house, his mom backed the van out of Curt's driveway and onto the street.

"That Curt is such a nice boy," Riker's mom said. "I'm glad that he found you and your friends."

"Me too," Riker said, smiling. He was certainly glad that Curt had found his way into his life. But at times, it was a double-edged sword. Yes, Curt was a wonderful person and a great friend, but there was one teensy-weensy little problem.

Riker was hopelessly in love with him.

On Curt's first day at Littleton High, Riker had barely noticed him. That morning Riker had overslept, and everyone was pissed off with him. He'd grumpily stumbled to the bus stop, and stood in the back of the line. He didn't even _notice _the new kid until they'd gotten on the bus.

On the bus, Riker was one of the lucky few with a seat all to himself. But when that new kid had climbed aboard the bus, looking so lost and nervous, Riker could help but share his seat. Riker didn't know it at the time, but his life would quickly become intertwined with the new kid's.

And Riker would fall so, so quickly for him.

When the new boy had found his way to their lunch table, Sophie didn't ask him anything, but he had literally been hanging on to every word Curt had said. The rest came quickly.

Riker recognized the symptoms: the blushing, the constant stream of butterflies in his stomach, being at a loss for words around them. He'd felt them the year before with a kid in his U.S. History class, a kid named Tyler. But it wasn't the feelings that worried him; it was the gender of the person he got them for. It was his first time crushing on another guy, and to be honest, it scared the hell out of him. At first, Riker was in denial. There was no way that he could possibly be gay. But after a while, it seemed to be a possibility. So, Riker decided to talk to the only gay guy he knew: Adam.

However, Riker could never find the right words to bring it up to Adam. Finally, one day, Riker was able to ask his questions, if not in the way he initially planned to.

* * *

_ "What are you doing out here?" Adam asked. It was the middle of fourth period; Riker was supposed to be in class. But then again, so was Adam._

_ Riker shrugged. Even though Mr. Green was nice, Riker had way too much on his mind to sit through a lecture on the causes of World War II. Hitler was a power-hungry jerk; Riker got it._

_ "Come on, Riker. I know we aren't all that close, but you can trust me," Adam said. _

_ "Can I ask you something dumb?" Riker asked, awkwardly shifting his weight from foot-to-foot. Adam didn't say anything, instead leaning in and pressing his lips to Riker's. It was a short, warm, kiss, and Adam's mouth tasted like peppermint gum._

_ "Was that what you wanted?" Adam asked. Riker nodded dumbly, and Adam smiled._

_ "Ew!" Came a voice from behind them. Riker and Adam turned to see Marissa Long standing there. She'd had a thing for Riker; that was no secret. But now, she just stood there with her face screwed up in disgust._

_ "Marissa, wait!" Adam said. But it was too late. She turned around and ran from them. _

_ "I'm so sorry, Riker," Adam said._

_ "It's okay," Riker said, shrugging. Riker walked away; down the hall to the boy's bathroom. He walked inside the bathroom and into one of the stalls, locking the door behing him. Leaning against the wall, he slid down to the floor, starting to cry._

* * *

After that, things only went downhill. Marissa didn't keep quiet about what she saw. However, Riker guessed he couldn't blame her. He'd probably of done the same if he'd seen two boys kissing.

The problem was that everyone took her word for it. Soon after the incident, the bullying started. A lot of kids got in on it. They would hit him. Shove him. Throw things at him. Call him names. At first, Riker didn't really care. They were just a bunch of jerks with lives so uninteresting that they got a kick out of picking on him. But it started to get to him quickly. Soon, he was so afraid to go to his classes that he often times would just skip them. His grades began to slip quickly.

* * *

_"Riker, what are you looking at?" Riker's mom asked from behind him._

_ "Pictures," Riker said. He was on the family computer in the living room, scrolling through Google Images._

_ "Of what?" she asked._

_ "California," Riker said._

_ "California?" she said. Riker nodded. "Listen honey, we need to talk."_

_ "About what?" Riker said, not looking away from the computer."_

_ "Your progress report wasn't that great, Riker. You're failing half of your classes," Stormie said. "And not only that, but I got a call from the school today. You've been absent from a lot of your classes lately. I know this isn't you, Riker. What's going on?"_

_ "Nothing," Riker said._

_ "Riker," she said._

_ "It's not me, it's them," he said._

_ "Who?"_

_ "A bunch of other kids," Riker said._

_ "Are they picking on you?" Stormie said._

_ "Yeah," Riker said._

_ "What are their names?" she asked._

_ "It doesn't matter. And even if it did, there are too many of them to name."_

_ "Riker, why didn't you say something?"_

_ "Because this is my problem to deal with. Not yours. Not dad's. Not Rocky's or Ross' or Rydel's or Ryland's problem. It's my problem and my problem alone."_

_ "Riker…"_

_ "No, mom. I've got to fight this on my own," he said, standing up. He pushed in the desk chair and started walking to his room._

_ California. Sunny skies, palm trees, cute girls, and fame. Riker knew that it was where he wanted to be. He'd known for a while. His plan was to ditch Colorado all together and get out to California as soon as soon as he graduated._

_ But lately, Riker had been thinking. And he'd come to the realization that he couldn't wait that long. He had to get out there as soon as possible._

* * *

Riker had been trying unsuccessfully to get his parents to let them move out to California. But they got to summer, and Riker managed to pull off passing grades in all of his classes, which pleased his dad. The summer flew by fleetingly, and then he was back in school, with no hope of an escape to California.

School was going okay. Riker was getting good grades, and the kids who had taunted him last year were leaving him along for the most part. He got the occasional insult from Marissa or one of her minions, but the worst seemed to be over now. It made him feel safer, like he could handle staying in Littleton for three more years. But he still wanted out of here.

And then came the roadblock on his road to escape: a boy from Texas that went by the name of Curt Mega.

"Riker, you know we're home, right?" Rocky said. Riker unbuckled his seatbelt and stepped out of the van. He was the last one out of the car, so he closed the door behind him before walking inside his house. His parents were standing in the living room, talking in hushed voices.

"He's going to be so excited," his mom said. They were probably talking about something for Rocky's birthday, which was coming up in about a week. Riker pretend to not hear them as he took off his shoes and jacket. They may have gone ice skating today, but it was still fall in Littleton. Once his shoes and jacket were off, he walked to his and Rocky's room.

Rocky was already there, lounging on his bed as though he had been waiting for Riker.

"Hey," Riker said.

"Hi," Rocky said.

Riker sat on his own bed and lay back like Rocky.

"You really love him, don't you?" Rocky said.

"Who are you talking about? Curt?" Riker said.

"No, Finn. Of course I'm talking about Curt," Rocky said. Riker rolled his eyes.

"I don't _love_ Curt. That's ridiculous," Riker said.

"If you don't, then why were you so excited to be working with him for your class project?" Rocky said.

Oh, right. The project. Curt and Riker had been paired up to work on a project for their Civics class. The assignment was to create their own country. Rocky was right. Riker was ecstatic when he found out he'd been paired up with Curt. Curt came over the next night, and they started the project. They'd sat here in his and Rocky's room, and talked about what they wanted their country to be.

Riker had caught himself staring at Curt's lips. He wanted to kiss them so badly, but he kept telling himself no. He knew that he was into Curt like that, but he didn't know if Curt was into him like that. He didn't want to scare the poor boy away.

Curt stayed for dinner. They had planned to work some more after dinner, but the weather was getting really nasty. Riker's dad told Curt that he should go home because the weather was supposed to be getting worse.

Without even thinking, Riker volunteered to walk him home.

* * *

_Curt shivered as he stepped out onto the front porch. Like his dad had said, snow was falling like mad. That was annoying. Riker wasn't ready for winter to return, especially not so early. _

_ "It's so beautiful out here," Curt said._

_ Riker had the urge to burst out laughing. There were many words that he could use to describe the snow, and beautiful certainly wasn't one of them._

_ "Beautiful?" Riker said. "You think that this is beautiful?"_

_ "I've only seen snow in pictures and movies," Curt said, shrugging slightly. _

_ "That makes more sense," Riker said. "Check in with me at the end of winter."_

_ Curt laughed, which made Riker feel better. He hadn't offended Curt entirely. _

_ "What street do you live on?" Riker asked._

_ "Murberry street," Curt said. All of the streets in the neighborhood had names that sounded like they came from nature. Riker lived on Pine street. But Murberry street won the prize for the weirdest name. As far as Riker knew, there was no such thing as a Murberry. Riker had looked it up once when he had free time in his English class. The only results Google gave were for pages about a Supreme Court case called Marbury v. Madison, and for mulberries. Maybe the people who decided on the street names for the subdivision meant to call it Mulberry street. Or maybe they just thought that Murberry sounded cooler._

_Riker led the way, walking out of his driveway and onto the street. Neither he nor Curt said anything for a few minutes, so Riker picked the conversation back up._

_"I hope my family didn't weird you out too much," Riker said. He'd been mortified when Rocky had said that Riker wouldn't shut up about Curt. Yeah, Riker had mentioned him before, but he didn't talk about them all of the time._

_"No," Curt said. "They're all really nice."_

_"Rocky was exaggerating, by the way," Riker said. "I've mentioned you before, but I don't literally talk about you all of the time."_

_"It's totally fine," Curt said._

_"I'm really glad we're working on this project," Riker said._

_"Me too," Curt said._

_The conversation momentarily died down between the two of them, but Curt picked it back up._

_"Want to know something funny?" Curt said._

_"What?" Riker said._

_"When I first met you, I thought you hated me," he said._

_Riker felt a pang of guilt. People seemed to do this a lot; thinking he hated them when he was really just shy. _

_"I don't hate you," Riker said. "I was just a little bit shy."_

_"I know that now," Curt said._

_"Good," Riker said. _

_Then, a gust of wind blew by, causing Curt to shiver again.  
"It's so cold out here," Curt said._

_"Maybe you shouldn't be wearing such a thin jacket, then," Riker said. He smiled and playfully poked Curt in the side._

_"I know, I've got to get my winter coat out. I got one just for Colorado."_

_He got a winter coat just for Colorado. Riker wasn't sure why, but he thought that was cute. It made him smile even more, if that was even possible._

_"You know, you should smile more," Curt said._

_"Me?" Riker said._

_"Do you see anyone else out here?" Curt asked. _

_Both Riker and Curt laughed, even though it wasn't really funny. Then, they came up on Curt's street. The two boys turned onto the street, continuing to talk. Riker was going crazy. All he wanted to do was reach out and kiss those stupid lips. _

_The two boys slowed down their pace, until they finally came to a stop. When Curt asked what was wrong, something snapped with in Riker. Without thinking, he grabbed Curt, pressing his lips to his. Curt didn't freak out, he just kissed Riker back._

_Then, Riker came to his senses. He stopped kissing Curt and jumped back. Riker was waiting for Curt to start yelling at him, but Curt didn't yell. He was trying to find the words to apologize for Curt, but the words never came._

_Not knowing what else to do, he turned around and started to run back home._

* * *

"There's one thing I don't understand, though," Rocky said. "That first night that Curt came over, you went to walk him home, and when you came back from walking him, you were really upset about something. What were you so upset about?"

Oh yeah. _That. _Riker had nearly forgotten about that.

* * *

_Riker finally reached his house. He raced inside, frantically kicking off his shoes and rushing to hang up his coat._

_"Riker? Is that you?" Riker's dad called from the living room._

_"Yup," Riker said. He was shaking like crazy. Hold it together, he told himself, just hold it together. He walked into the main part of the house. As he passed by his parents, he got quizzical looks from them._

_"You okay?" Riker's father said. _

_"Yup," Riker said._

_"Why are you shaking?" his mom asked._

_"It's cold out there," Riker said._

_"Would you like some hot chocolate?" his mom asked. "I was just about to make some for Rydel and the boys."_

_"No thanks," Riker said. Without another word, Riker kept moving, until finally, he reached his and Rocky's room. He opened the door and walked inside, shutting it behind him. _

_Rocky was reading some book that he had to read for English class. When Riker walked inside, he looked up from his book._

_"Whoa, what's up?" Rocky said. Riker didn't answer. Riker couldn't answer. Instead, Riker let himself fall to the floor._

_"I screwed up," Riker said. But he wasn't talking to Rocky, he was talking to himself._

_"What do you mean you screwed up?" Rocky said._

_"I screwed up big-time," Riker said. Riker continued to shake, dissolving into tears. Rocky set down his book and sat down next to Riker on the floor._

_"Whatever it is, I'm sure it'll turn out fine," Rocky said. _

_Riker hoped that Rocky was right._

* * *

"I'd rather not talk about that," Riker said.

"Fair enough," Rocky said.

The next day at school, Curt had forgiven Riker, and the two of them promised not to mention the kiss again. But Riker knew that if he wanted to forget about it completely, he'd have to find a way to distract himself from Curt.

Luckily, he found himself a pretty little distraction that went by the name of Tiffany Evans. She was a blonde-haired thin volleyball player that wore pink lip gloss and smelled like strawberries. She was in Riker's second hour math class. One day after class, he asked her to homecoming, and she had said yes.

They'd had an amazing time at the dance together. Unfortunately, even though the dance had been great, their relationship didn't last for much longer.

Tiffany had been absent the Monday after the dance. So, when she got back to school, she asked if she could borrow his math notebook so she could copy down the notes from yesterday. Riker happily obliged, and gave her his notebook right before first hour. When he went to math class, she gave it back to him, but she didn't seem happy.

After class, he asked her about it.

* * *

_"Are you mad at me?" Riker asked. _

_"I don't want to do this here," Tiffany said. Most of the kids from math class had left, leaving them and Mr. Schaefer in the room. But then, Mr. Schaefer stood up and left._

_ "We're alone now," Riker said. Tiffany grabbed Riker's notebook and flipped open to a page, showing it to him. Riker started blushing when he realized what she had opened to._

_ Sometime after Curt had arrived in Littleton, when Riker realized that he had feelings for Curt, he'd written a love note to Curt. He'd never planned on giving it to him, but he'd still written it. And Tiffany had still seen it._

_ "You know, when I said yes to you, people told me to break up with you. They warned me that you were gay; that you had been caught kissing some guy in the hallway last year. I told them that they were crazy. If that were true, then why would you ask me out? But it looks like they were right, and I was a fool. I'm not going to let you make me look like a fool any longer. We're done, Riker," Tiffany said. Then, she picked up her stuff and left the room._

_ Riker stayed there, too stunned to move. A few seconds after Tiffany left, Mr. Schaefer entered the classroom again._

_ "Something wrong?" he asked._

_ "My girlfriend just broke up with me," Riker said._

_ "Aw. That's tough luck," Mr. Schaefer said._

* * *

Riker wanted to pretend that being with Tiffany magically reminded him of his heterosexuality and that he was over Curt, but that wasn't true at all. However, this whole thing made Riker begin to wonder if it was possible that Curt maybe liked him back.

After the break-up, Riker had been hanging out in the library. He saw Curt, and called out to him. When Curt had found out that Tiffany had dumped him, he'd given Riker a hug. And today, when they'd gone ice skating, Riker had offered to help him skate, by holding his hand so he wouldn't fall. Curt totally let him. Of course, Rocky plowed them over, but it was all okay now.

"Just admit it. You love him," Rocky said.

"I do not," Riker said.

But he totally did, and there was no way he was telling Rocky that.

* * *

**Well, that's that. I will have more of these in the future. They won't be regular occurrences, but whenever there's a place where we need to see things from Riker's perspective (and there will be a few places coming up), then I'll write another one.**

**I had snow days for the past two days, but I return to school tomorrow. Hopefully, that won't deter me from updating soon. From here on, we go back to Curt's POV and move forward with the plot. **

**Hope to see you guys soon. Thank you for your continued support. **


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